Unknown woman, formerly known as Mary, Queen of Scots

Linne Moore

18 September 2021, 01:12

Hi there...I was having a look at this beautiful portrait and I was struck by its uncanny resemblance to Anne Boleyn...The character features I note are...1..The black eyes,the left smaller than the right...2 the bent hook nose with the small nostrils, and her narrow chin that has a hooped crese,shaping it below the mouth,and the dimpling in profile on the right side.,the very long fingers,and beautiful hands.By observation I also note that a lot of tudor portraits are stylized,painted not necessarily as as total reality,
but how the sitter wished to be represented, or to convey a symbol,My guess is that its either...another portrait of Anne Boleyn, a stylized portrait of Elizabeth,as Anne Boleyn,perhaps a way for her to keep a portrait of her mother close,or even Elizabeth herself, as even though she was around 60 at the time,she was incredibly vain.Another possibility is that perhaps it was at one point an unfinished portrait of Anne with only her face completed...it does sit a little oddly with the rest of the painting.Also I note that the face bears resemblance to the hidden face in the portrait of Elizabeth that was x-rayed...Intriguing ,but I hope this helps.

Graeme Cameron

15 February 2021, 10:43

Initial Contact - Interim Research Courtesy Note in Advance : As a service for the benefit of Britain's Art and Historical Heritage - Our 2020 - February 2021 continuing research, resulting from the rediscovered 1536 "Personal Portrait of Queen Anne Boleyn of England", has revealed this portrait to be of "Lady Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham" closest friend for 44 Years and First Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth Ist, and Wife of Lord High Admiral Earl Charles Howard. Painted Circa 1575 London, using most of the unique elements of "Queen Anne Boleyn's rediscovered Personal Portrait", of 1536 Whitehall Palace, London.

The research findings including the physiognomic concordances, her rank, but more significantly almost all its other Dress features, support its sitter being a circa 1575 “A Portrait of Lady Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham”, First Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. Its Artist, whom research has further putatively identified, as a most probably a very early ‘naïve’ work, eg Note its disproportionate Left Eye c/f to Lady Howard's later 1592 Portrait by Robert Peake the Elder.

Robert Peake has comprehensively based, by copying to smallest detail, almost all of the Dress and Accoutrement features of “Queen Anne Boleyn’s 1536 Portrait”, with just a few variations of Crucifix Jewel, etc. It would not have been possible for its artist, whether Peake or close contemporary, to have so faithfully duplicated most of its features in such accurate detail, without actually having “Queen Anne Boleyn’s 1536 Portrait” "insitu" with him in London, circa 1575, to have copied them so well in Lady Catherine Howard’s circa 1575 portrait, thus verifying the Howard's ownership of it at that time.
It confirms the subject London 1536 “Personal Portrait of Queen Anne Boleyn” must have been purchased circa1575 by Lady Catherine and/or Earl Charles Howard, being almost certainly be that same work dispersed from Rev Mathew Parker’s Lambeth Palace, London Estate in the same year. This uniquely rare linkage and the Howard’s Portrait's circa1575 dating make a most compelling case.
Irrespective, whether or not the "Parker" work, this work was in the Howard's possession Circa 1575.

Research is continuing, however to view the images, please refer my twitter site graemecameron2.