{"id":103652,"date":"2026-01-17T23:59:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103652\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T23:59:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:59:47","slug":"is-anne-boleyns-most-famous-portrait-actually-of-queen-elizabeth-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103652\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Anne Boleyn\u2019s Most Famous Portrait Actually of Queen Elizabeth I?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 500 years have passed since Anne Boleyn was executed by her husband, England\u2019s King Henry VIII, yet somehow we\u2019re still finding new ways to be fascinated by the infamous Tudor queen. Despite the fact that Henry ultimately had six wives, all of whom have featured in books, plays, films, and television\u2014not to mention the pop-y Broadway hit Six specifically about their marriages\u2014Anne Boleyn has continued to capture imaginations<\/a> down the centuries like no other, from her heavily-debated last words to the mystery of her iconic pearl \u201cB\u201d necklace<\/a>. Now, scholars have posed a new facet to the enigma of Anne Boleyn\u2019s legacy: her most famous portrait may not actually feature her face.<\/p>\n

Odds are, when you think of Anne Boleyn, the image that pops to mind if the one above: A late 16th century portrait which is currently displayed at London\u2019s National Portrait Gallery. The painting has long been known to have been posthumous, coming from a time toward the end of the reign of Anne\u2019s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I. However, new research from Tudor historian Owen Emmerson, author of the forthcoming book Capturing the Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn, now suggests that the face that appears in the painting was not based on Boleyn, but rather Elizabeth.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabethbrandstaetter images\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.<\/p>\n

Examining the famous portrait of Boleyn alongside a version of Elizabeth from the Compton Verney Collection as well as a portrait of Elizabeth\u2019s half sister, Queen Mary I even one of King Edward IV, Elizabeth\u2019s great-grandfather, Emmerson suggests that they may all of have been painted by the same artist in an attempt to emphasize Elizabeth\u2019s legitimacy during a period when the queen\u2019s rule was under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one artist doing a series of portraits of monarchs and putting on the the face of the reigning queen, Elizabeth, to show a legitimate and God-ordained line of succession,\u201d he told The London Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Very few images of Anne Boleyn from her own lifetime have survived, many having been destroyed following the queen\u2019s execution in 1536. However, the few that do remain, Emmerson says, may indicate a very different look than the dark-haired beauty that has dominated the popular imagination.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitCourtesy of the Royal Collection Trust<\/p>\n

A portrait of Anne Boleyn by Hans Holbein the Younger was likely painted in either 1532 or 1533.<\/p>\n

In particular, he points to a Hans Holbein the Younger portrait of Anne, made during her lifetime, which (along with a few others) seems to depict the queen with red or auburn hair, leading him to believe that Boleyn carried the MC1R gene. \u201cIt\u2019s the primary determinant for red hair,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter all, Henry VIII had red hair, as did their daughter, Elizabeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of an upcoming exhibition at Boleyn\u2019s childhood home, Hever Castle<\/a>, Emmerson and co-curators Kate McCaffrey and Alison Palmer have assembled some 30-odd images of the late queen, including several made in her lifetime. The exhibition will run from February 11, 2026 through the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 500 years have passed since Anne Boleyn was executed by her husband, England\u2019s King Henry VIII, yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[567,47274,569,568,9,24,63,122,124,123,47273],"class_list":{"0":"post-103652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-7f76d716-47a9-43a5-92b2-ae66e2c2893b","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-locale-us","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-shorttitle-anne-boleyns-portrait-may-be-of-queen-elizabeth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}