The end of yet another week and time for our weekly round up of Anne Boleyn Files and Tudor news:-
- Anne Boleyn Files 1 Year Anniversary Competition – The AB Files is 1 year old on the 17th February and I will be holding an article competition to celebrate. I’ll announce details on Monday so watch this space!
- Anne Boleyn portrait – This portrait has just been emailed to me. Does anyone recognise it and know any information about it. To me, it looks like a copy of the National Portrait Gallery portrait of Anne but the colouring is quite different. It’s almost as if someone has copied that portrait but corrected Anne’s hair colour and eye colour. If you know anything about it then please tell me in the comments below.
- Anne Boleyn at the Globe Theatre – Thanks go to Sheena and Melissa for pointing this out to me. A play entitled “Anne Boleyn” written by award-winning playwright Howard Brenton, is being performed from the 24th July-21st August 2010 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Bankside, London. Booking opens on the 15th February.You can find out more at the Globe Theatre website – see http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/annualtheatreseason/anneboleyn/ – but here is how they describe the play:-
“A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII’s notorious second wife. Anne Boleyn is traditionally seen either as a pawn manipulated by an ambitious father and his friends into the King’s bed, or as a sexually licentious predator, even a witch.But Brenton puts a very different Anne – and her ghost – on the Globe stage. Witty and confident in her sexuality, she takes on the vicious world of Tudor Court politics. She is in love with Henry but also in love with the most dangerous ideas of her day. Conspiring with the exiled William Tyndale, the great translator of the Bible who was to be burnt as a heretic, Anne plots to make England Protestant, forever.”
- The Tudors Season 4 – If you haven’t already heard, “The Tudors” Season 4 is due to premiere at 9pm ET/PT on Sunday 11th April which is great news for US fans and rather frustrating for the rest of us! Read my post “The Tudors Season 4 – The Final Series” to find out further information and to see the teaser trailer. I’m so glad that they have got Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr as I hate the old nursemaid image of Catherine.
- Jane Boleyn – Thanks for all your wonderful comments on my post “Jane Boleyn and the Fall of Anne Boleyn”, Jane really does seem to be as much of a mystery as Anne. I would highly recommend Julia Fox’s biography of Jane, “Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford” as Fox is very thorough in her examination of Jane.
- The Elizabeth Files – Read my post “Cecil’s Fast and Elizabeth I’s Navy” to see how William Cecil and Elizabeth I went about strengthening England’s Navy by introducing Fish Days. Clever!
- The Anne Boleyn Resource Guide – Thanks so much to those of you who have supported The Mary Rose 500 Appeal by purchasing “The Anne Boleyn Guide”. Carolyn, the first customer to buy it, left a comment on last week’s Tudor News saying “Just got your The Anne Boleyn Resource Guide, and it is jam-packed with valuable info. I’ll keep it on my computer desktop page for instant access. The archival links alone make it worth much more than you’re selling it for. Thanks for making it!” Thanks, Carolyn, I’m glad you’re finding it useful.
The guide is only $2 and all proceeds go to the Mary Rose 500 Appeal to help build the new Mary Rose Museum. Click here for more information on the guide and to purchase and download. - Our jewellery – Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to be doing some reorganising of our jewellery ranges and discontinuing certain ranges or items so that we can introduce new items. Daniela is always working hard on designing pieces which are replicas from “The Tudors” and we need room for these. I will be having a section for discontinued items, so you may be able to get yourself a bargain or two. Keep an eye on the site!
- Know of a Tudor themed event near you? Then tell me about it and I’ll add it to the Events page.
- Contributing to The Anne Boleyn Files – I look on The Anne Boleyn Files as a community of Anne Boleyn and Tudor fans, rather than MY site, so please feel free to contribute. How? Well, you may have an area of expertise which is Tudor related and you could write an article about this, you could write a book review, you could join the forum and debate Tudor topics with other fans from around the world or you could just leave a comment here and let me know what this site is missing and what you’d like to see on it. Let me know!
I wonder if there is any way if you could contact the Globe Theater to perhaps see a dress rehearsal or even just a rehearsal of the play- wouldn’t that just be an awesome addition to the Anne Boleyn Experience?
As for the mystery image- I have seen it on historic-uk.com but it doesn’t give any info as to who the artist was…
Hi Sheena,
I think it looks like someone has just photoshopped the National Portrait Gallery portrait to be closer to contemporary descriptions of Anne – dark hair and coal black eyes – but it could be an actual portrait, not sure.
I will contact the Globe for more information about the play but I’m not sure that we have any extra time on the tour anyway, pretty jam packed with things! Thanks for letting me know about the play.
I am looking forward to seeing the Globe Theatre production of Anne Boleyn. I am London based so I will certaiinly hope to get there..
Also waiting with eager anticipation to see The Tudors Season 4 – true, we here in The U.K have to wait longer to see the show but we will have it still to look forward to after it is finished in The United States.
Going off topic somewhat, I wonder if any keen gardners in The U.K are aware that there is a beautiful pink rose called Anne Boleyn, those of us with gardens could grow this as a tribute to our heroine. Just a thought.
I do believe this may be a composite of several portraits.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qb4GWaVfrMo/Shziq8chIaI/AAAAAAAADTg/FGJBURqFAeo/s400/anne-boleyn1.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1171/842141668_62dafbf670.jpg
Supposedly this picture is on display at Hever Castle. (Or so the website says)
And of course, this one:
http://greenstonesupport.iimk.ac.in/greenstone2009/program-cd/sample_files/simple_html/boleyn_files/boleynmainjpg.jpg
I base this off the coloring on some of the portraits.Also, in the image you hav posted I do also believe it has been color corrected via photoshop, judging by that wonky hairline. There is a small wave around her forehead on the right side. Then on the left it looks like in the process of coloring the hair, they changed the hairline from every other portrait. (She is usually depicted with a somewhat straight, flat hairline with an almost vertical forehead outline) I also detect that there are some photoshop filters used over this, to make it appear as though it was painted over a canvas but notice a lack of it over the supposed color correction, but it is not completely gone. I would take this to mean they tried to use a sharpening tool to make it appear as if it was part of the canvas, or used the canvas filter.
Sorry if none of this makes any sense, but I do detect photoshop. And also, I believe it may be a composite of other portraits. I looked and looked but could not find this particular portrait anywhere.
I like the picture of Anne Boleyn.The first thing I noticed about this picture was that the colouring of the portrait was bright and a lot brighter than the contemporary usual picture/s of her.Also this picture is on the front cover of Retha.M.Warnickes book “The Rise And Fall Of Anne Boleyn”. The light brings her face out plus what she is wearing.The majority of Tudor portraits were painted with a block colour canvas.Not all though.Whether bright or dark.
Claire who emailed you this picture?
Here is the portrait Sheena mentioned: http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/AnneBoleyn-CC.jpg
In it Anne has blue eyes and lighter hair. I reckon that the mystery image is either photoshopped to match the descriptions of Anne or a copy of the NPG portrait.
I think the picture is just a copy of NPG’s original, recoloured. Otherwise we’d be able to find more info about it. People like to copy old pictures and ‘edit’ them. Some of the most famous pictures in the world have more than likely been touched up by people other than the original artists. (forensic testing proves this)
That last point was totally irrelavant. :/ I notice that in this version of the NPG pic her features are softer as well. The bags under Anne’s eyes aren’t as obvious in this one and her colouring is also a lot warmer around the cheeks. If this wasn’t photoshopped (which I doubt) could it be the original of NPG’s portrait (that one is only a copy of an original) Not likely. Or, maybe someone wanted the queen of England’s mother to look less stern than in the NPG one and so copied it but ‘sweetened’ her features? Also unlikely. There are maaaaaany possibilities but I’d put my money on the photoshop theory.
Hello Claire
As far as I know that particular portrait was painted by a man called Micheal Sittow, as you know yourself, there are many portraits of Anne, even one by a German artist, where she is holding a rose, but I have never seen the one attributed to Holbien.
Julia
I don’t think that Sittow painted portraits of Anne Boleyn due to the fact that he he was the court painter for Catherine’s mother, Isabella of Castille and worked primarily for the Hapsburg family. The only works that I know of that depict any of Henry’s wives, is the one that he did of Katherine when she was still the Spanish Infanta, and one of her as as the Magdalene. There is no record of him visiting England in the 1520’s and he died of the plague in January of 1526…doubt that he had time to visit England in 1525 (when Henry became infatuated with Anne) and paint her picture…especially since he was still married to Katherine, and her family paid for his livelihood.
I did found the portrait… it is part of a series of “Players Cigarette carts” .
It is a scan of one of the cards I think.
I found it here : http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=2283202