The Tamesis
The portrait of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s unhappy second wife, is now thought to have been an attempt to restore her image after her death. Historians and curators have used infrared reflectometry to uncover evidence that the work was created at least in part to dispel rumors that Boleyn was a six-fingered witch.
In the painting, which hangs at Hever Castle in England, two of Boleyn’s hands can be seen, each bearing the usual numerals. But new infrared scans show that the underpainting of the portrait does not show her hands at all, suggesting that the unknown creator of the piece deviated from the original image to include both hands.
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Sixteenth-century portraits, especially royal portraits, were often based on “patterns,” sketches drawn from life during brief periods of meditation. Not only were these used by the artist who produced the original sketches, copies of this “official” portrait were also distributed to other studios and studios to ensure that the model’s image remained consistent.
The Hever portrait may have been based on such a copy, but of a later date. Tree-ring analysis of the painting’s oak supports dates to around 1583, during the reign of Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth I. It is now believed to be the earliest extant portrait of Boleyn, and is perhaps the most accurate based on the original “pattern” on which it was based.
Henry VIII’s divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his marriage to Boleyn led to his eventual excommunication from the Catholic Church and sparked the English Reformation. But when Anne failed to bear him a son, she was accused of treason and beheaded in 1536.
After Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, Nicholas Sanders, an activist dedicated to restoring Roman Catholicism in England, tried to undermine her legitimacy by writing that her mother was “unnatural” and had “six fingers on her right hand.” This painting seems to be a direct rebuttal.
Kate McCaffrey, assistant curator at the Heffer Art Museum, told the New York Times: “This was not only Elizabeth’s way of reclaiming her own legitimacy and lineage, but also her mother’s.” guardian. “It is impossible to say that the portrait was commissioned by Elizabeth herself, but it seems too coincidental that it was not a response to rumors circulating at the time.”
The painting will be on display in the exhibition Capturing the Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn, opening at Hever Castle and Gardens in February 2027.
