What is the true face of Anne Boleyn? There is some new compelling evidence that has come to light in the last few years about a lost portrait – called the Lumley Portrait – that may reveal Anne’s true, painted-from-life face to us. I want to talk through this new evidence today and of course bring you some new facial re-creations, since Anne is one of my favorite subjects to talk about.
0:00 The New Research
8:16 Reconstructions Revealed
The reason it’s so hard to get a picture of the true Anne Boleyn is that after her death, her image was essentially erased from England. Anything that bore Anne’s symbol was struck down (making artifacts like this wooden falcon , a symbol of Anne’s, exceedingly rare.)
The political atmosphere in Tudor England after Anne’s death was so incredibly tense, that anything that remained of the disgraced Queen – clothing, images, or artifacts – to survive, would have to have been kept secret by her kin, and then kept safe enough to last throughout the centuries.
One such portrait, which is unfortunately lost to us at this moment, was known to exist as late as 1773. This is known as the Lumley portrait.
The Lumley portrait was a full-length, contemporary image of Queen Anne Boleyn that once hung at her childhood home of Hever Castle. It was possibly commissioned by her father, Thomas Boleyn, which is one reason why may have been able to survive – her family would have protected it at all costs.
Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, eventually leased Hever Castle (other images here, here) in 1540, just four years after Anne Boleyn’s death. Anne of Cleves kept it until her death in 1557, when she willed it to her friend, Henry Fitzalan, the Earl of Arundel, who then willed it to his son-in-law, Baron Lumley – which is why we call it the Lumley portrait today.
We know the painting was sold to a private collector in 1773 – and this is where it evaporates from the records, until, mysteriously, in 1926, the Howard Young Gallery photographed a portrait of Anne that no longer seems to exist.
The original photo, in sepia, is beautiful. Many assumed that a lost original portrait of Anne would have been painted by Hans Holbein, the ubiquitous court painter, but analysis of this image reveals that it actually has a lot more in common with the style of Joos van Cleve, who also painted Henry VIII from life in several images.
Something else interesting about the 1926 photograph, and the Lyndhurst, is that Anne’s hair appears to be dark red, rather than the typical dark brown or black. This is also present in the John Hoskins Miniature, which was painted in the mid-1600s, and on the back is noted as being a direct copy of “an ancient original.”
So it would appear that some of the most direct copies of the lost original show much more vivid red hair than other, later copies. I mean, this makes sense, her daughter Elizabeth was famous for her red hair, and it was very very common in Tudor England to be blonde or red headed.
The physical descriptions of Anne from her life all mention her beautiful dark eyes, but never her exact hair color. It’s very possible that Anne Boleyn was a redhead, or had more auburn hair than later portraits would suggest.
They share the same strong, sloped nose, fuller mouth, and soft, slightly recessed chin, unlike other copies created later.
A venetian ambassador even described Anne as having a full, wide mouth, which is in direct contradiction to all of the copies with these tiny, pinched lips. But I suppose all it takes is one artist to paint tiny lips and then have all of the copies kind of play telephone with that feature.
To me, the sketches and the Lumley portrait are also the only versions consistent with the Moost Happi medal, which is the only indisputable image of Anne from her time as Queen. It’s been badly damaged, and looks a bit squished, but it does show Anne with a fuller nose and mouth than are present in other portraits.
So, I’ve made a few re-creations from the Lumley portrait, as well as one from the Holbein sketches to compare. Let’s take a look at those now.
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