Jane Seymour
1 portrait
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Jane Seymour
after Hans Holbein the Younger
oil on panel, circa 1537
25 1/4 in. x 18 7/8 in. (640 mm x 480 mm) overall
Purchased, 2016
Primary Collection
NPG 7025
On display in Room 1 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Sitterback to top
- Jane Seymour (1508 or 1509-1537), Third Queen of Henry VIII. Sitter associated with 15 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 or 1498-1543), Painter, printmaker and designer; son of Hans Holbein the Elder. Artist or producer associated with 310 portraits, Sitter associated with 25 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This unfinished portrait appears to be a contemporary version of the key image of Jane Seymour, which was painted by Holbein in 1536 after a sitting from the life (Royal Collection and Kunsthistorisches Museum). She is depicted at half length, wearing a red velvet gown with cloth of gold sleeves and an English style gable headdress. The dimensions are very similar to Holbein’s painting and the wooden panel boards are constructed from a tree felled in the 1530s (unlike the Gallery’s other portraits after Holbein, which date to the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century). The flesh tones have been fully worked up but the rest of the portrait is unfinished, with underdrawing clearly showing through in the jewels and only a tonal base layer applied in the headdress and sleeves. The painting may have been left unfinished following Jane’s sudden death.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Bolland, Charlotte, The Tudors Passion, Power and Politics, 2022, p. 68
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1537back to top
Current affairs
Prince Edward (later King Edward VI) is born at Hampton Court. His mother, Jane Seymour dies twelve days later.Leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace popular rising against Church reforms and enclosure are captured and executed.
The English translation of the Bible by Miles Coverdale becomes the first complete Bible to be printed in England.
Art and science
The German artist Hans Holbein the Younger paints a dynastic portrait of King Henry VIII, his third wife, Jane Seymour, and his parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, on a wall of the privy chamber in Whitehall Palace (destroyed in the fire of 1698).International
Francis I of France and Suleiman I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire agree to act together against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.Christian III, King of Denmark and Norway introduces Lutheran Protestantism as the state religion.
Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.
Related pages
- Tudor Miniatures
- Tints, texture and original intent, in four after-Holbein portraits
- Technique and effects of the after-Holbein copyists
- Holbein and his copyists
- The contexts for the production and demand for painted versions and copies in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century
- Pictured and seen
- Director's Trail by Nicholas Cullinan
- Loans to the National Gallery
- Adopt-a-Portrait
- Daily highlights tours
- LGBTQ+ History Month highlights tour
- LGBTQ+ highlights tour
- Trailblazers Black history tour
- NPG D48093 in 360°
- The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics
- The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics
- Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery - Compton Verney Art Gallery
- Portraits of Writers - Hay Castle
- Tudor and Elizabethan portraits