Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 -- Criticism and interpretation; Painters -- Germany -- Biography
Walpole, _Anecdotes_, ed. Wornum, i. pp. 94-5. Hollar’s etching
(Parthey, 1546) is reproduced by Ganz, _Holbein_, p. 198 (3); and by
Cust, _Burlington Magazine_, July 1910, p. 195.
Footnote 412:
_Archæologia_, vol. xl. p. 87. Reproduced in _Burlington Fine Arts
Club Catalogue_, Pl. xxxiv.
The Windsor drawing[413] bears no inscription, and the sitter is turned
to the right, as in Hollar’s engraving, instead of to the left, but
otherwise it shows the same type of features, smooth auburn hair, and
French cap or hood, as in the miniature. The dress, however, in
Holbein’s usual fashion, is merely indicated with a few lines, showing a
plain bodice cut square, filled in with white cambric, with a
diamond-shaped opening revealing neck and bosom. It agrees in the same
way with the newly-discovered portrait, of which, though reversed, it is
evidently one of the preliminary studies. The identity with Catherine
Howard is further proved, as Mr. Lionel Cust points out, by the family
resemblance, plainly visible, in certain of the features, such as the
over-accentuated lower jaw, to the portraits of her uncle, the Duke of
Norfolk, and of his son, the ill-fated Earl of Surrey.
Footnote 413:
Woltmann, 329; Wornum, ii. 9; Holmes, i. 42. Reproduced in _Burlington
Magazine_, vol. xvii., July 1910, p. 195, together with the two
miniatures and Hollar’s etching.
[Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF CATHERINE HOWARD]
In 1898 the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery acquired a
portrait of Catherine Howard[414] at the sale of the Cholmondeley
pictures at Condover Hall, Shropshire, which closely follows the Windsor
drawing, although in the reverse position. The excellence of the
painting of the hands, and of the details of the dress and jewels, led
at first to the supposition that it might be a genuine work by Holbein
which had undergone some damage and restoration, but closer examination
proved that it was merely a careful contemporary school copy, or
repetition of some lost original. It is inscribed “ETATIS SVÆ 21,” which
corresponds with the known facts of Catherine Howard’s life. In the
summer of 1909 the original picture of which it is a copy was submitted
to Mr. Cust, who recognised it at once as not only a portrait of
Catherine Howard, but as most possibly a genuine work of the great
master, which proved to be the case on the removal of much dirty varnish
and some repaints.[415] It came from a private collection in the west of
England, where it had formed part of a series of historical portraits
which had been in the possession of the same family for several
generations, and had been regarded at one time as a portrait of Eleanor
Brandon, Countess of Cumberland, and at another as Princess Mary Tudor.
It is now in Canada, in the collection of Mr. James H. Dunn.
Footnote 414:
No. 1119. Reproduced by Pollard, _Henry VIII_, p. 268; and in the
Illustrated Catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, vol. i. p. 25.
Footnote 415:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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