Saturday, October 15, 2022

Is the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn really based on a lost original? Update.

Do you remember my last post about the eerie similarity between Anne Boleyn's NPG portrait and Elizabeth I's Compton Verney portrait?
Apparently, these two portraits were painted by the same artist who used similar face patterns. But there's more!
Dr Owen Emmerson - Historian has kindly provided more details when I posted about this on my Facebook page: The artist also painted the Hever corridor portrait of Katherine of Aragon, and the Weiss Gallery portrait of Mary I.
Now look at the spooky similarity in face patterns in the Weiss portrait of Mary I and the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn. The proportions are identical. These portraits were painted around the same time in the 1580s so that explains a lot. Anne Boleyn's painting was dated to 1584.
I was informed that there is going to be more about this discovery by art historian Lawrence Hendra, so we have to wait for more developments. So far it's truly fascinating.