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2:35 pm
March 12, 2010
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This may seem irrelevant, but I've been wondering about the vast range of presentations of Anne in portraits. Which one is considered the most accurate? Obviously, Anne was and still is famous/infamous to many for her black eyes and hair, hence the nickname “Black Nan.” But in many portraits, and according to Joanna Denny, it looks as if she had auburn hair and dark brown eyes. What's the truth??
2:54 pm
March 30, 2010
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Well, visually I picture Anne as a dark girl, with deep deep rown hair, but then turned light in the sun, dark, sort of the color of a french girl, colored skin, since someone once said she had a rather dark complexion, black eyes, black like hair, and was rather looking more french in all. Since I am english, I actually hear that I look like I am French. So I can relate to what is said about Anne. Oh, but I think the most acurrate portrait is either the one painted ater Holbein, modeled after the sketch that is supposedly Anne, or the one at Hever, representing her with dark skin, hair, and eyes.
9:23 pm
August 12, 2009
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Hi, Hannah. I think a lot of the 'early' Anne portraits were redone from destroyed originals, so maybe they got the colors a bit wrong. Or, they portrayed her with something a little closer to their conventions of beauty at the time.
"Don't knock at death's door.
Ring the bell and run. He hates that."
8:48 am
February 16, 2009
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Nicholas Sander described her as having black hair but then he wasn't born until 1527 so is hardly likely to have known Anne. In the chapter “Debut at the English Court”, Ives writes of how “all reports agree that Anne was dark” – Wyatt gave her the name “Brunet” in a poem, Simon Grynée said that her complexion was “Rather dark” and Ives cites the Original Letters, ii 553; Cal. S. P. Ven. 1527-33, 824; and Lancelot de Carles in Ascoli, L'Opinion, lines 170-1, as all recording that people remarked how fair Elizabeth was when she was born, saying that she took after her father rather than her mother.
Debunking the myths about Anne Boleyn
12:48 pm
March 12, 2010
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Thanks guys! Yes, I find it odd that Nicholas Sanders says so much about Anne considering the date of his birth! Obviously we'll never know for sure what Anne looked like, but I imagine that she was somewhere in between “Black Nan” and the portrait on the cover of Denny's biography.
9:46 pm
January 9, 2010
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I think Impish is right in that all the known portraits survive from later periods and probably reflect the ideals of beauty at the time rather than what the Tudors might have considered 'beautiful' which may have explained the various colourings. My personal opinion is that the Hever Castle portrait is probably closest to the truth with the very dark hair and eyes and I may be wrong but I think its also one of the earliest.
I have to say though that the portrait based off the Holbein sketch would have to be my second favourite which looks as though it was done some time in the eighteenth century. I just love the warm tones and Anne even manages to make the gable hood look good!
