A TALE OF TWO PORTRAITS: How Preservation Patterns Reveal True Identity
The Case of the Mislabelled Blonde and the Anonymous Brunette
In British history, how a portrait survived often tells us more about who it depicts. The preservation stories of two Holbein drawings – the famous “Windsor Sketch” and the mysterious “unidentified woman” RCIN 912190 – reveal a fascinating tale of recognition, secrecy, and scholarly assumption.
The Windsor Sketch: A Contaminated Journey
The Royal Route (1543-1675) The Windsor Sketch followed the predictable path of royal property: Holbein – Henry VIII – Edward VI – through noble collections – back to Charles II. This was the route of official court art – prestigious, documented, but ultimately contaminated by centuries of speculation.
The Problem: Official ≠ Accurate
- Passed through 8 different hands over centuries
- Subjected to repeated unbinding and rebinding
- Labels could be separated, mixed up, or lost
- Even if Cheke’s identification was correct initially, subsequent scrambling could have attached accurate labels to completely different drawings
- The famous “Anna Bollein” inscription was added centuries later—not by anyone who knew Anne Boleyn
Why This Preservation Pattern Suggests It’s NOT Anne Boleyn: The Windsor Sketch was preserved as official royal property – valuable regardless of who it depicted. Its survival tells us nothing about the recognition of the sitter’s identity, only about institutional preservation of royal artistic assets.
RCIN 912190: The Underground Railroad of Recognition
The Private English Route (1543-1792) While the Windsor Sketch traveled through official channels, RCIN 912190 took a dramatically different path: Holbein’s workshop dispersal → (approx) 200 years in private English hands → J. Richardson the Elder → Richard Mead → Walter Chetwynd → Benjamin Way → patriotic donation to the Royal Collection.
This Preservation Pattern Screams Significance:
1. The 17th-Century Conservation Decision
Someone in the 1600s – closer to the Tudor period than any modern scholar – made a expensive, professional decision to preserve this drawing:
- Precise cutting along the contours of the headdress and shoulders
- Professional remounting on prepared paper
- Costly conservation not undertaken lightly
- Driven by recognition of the sitter’s importance
2. The Distinguished Collector Chain
Each owner was a serious expert who recognised value:
- Jonathan Richardson the Elder: England’s foremost expert on Old Master drawings
- Richard Mead: Distinguished collector
- Walter Chetwynd: Discerning antiquarian
- Benjamin Way: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
These weren’t casual art buyers – they were connoisseurs who understood significance.
3. The Patriotic Donation
Benjamin Way’s decision to present (not sell) this drawing to the Royal Collection in 1792 is telling. The act of donation rather than sale suggests he recognised this as material of significant English historical importance that belonged with the Crown.
This preservation pattern completely contradicts recent scholarly speculation that RCIN 912190 depicts Amalia of Cleves – an obscure German princess who never set foot in England and had no connection to British heritage.
The Holbein Annotations: A Smoking Gun
RCIN 912190 bears Holbein’s own annotations:
- “Samat” (velvet)
- “Damast” (damask)
These were luxury fabrics restricted by sumptuary laws to highest nobility. Holbein only bothered to note fabrics when the commission was extraordinarily significant – precisely what we’d expect for a queen’s portrait.
The drawing was composed during Anne’s queenship. According to K. T. Parker, Keeper of the Department of Fine Art at the Ashmolean Museum, the jewels on the hat are similar to those of male hats and are English. Dr Jane Malcolm-Davies, Tudor clothing expert, also confirms the hat and dress are English.
What the Preservation Patterns Reveal
Windsor Sketch = Institutional Preservation
- Survived because it was royal property
- Value independent of sitter’s identity
- Contaminated by centuries of handling and speculation
- Labels applied by people who didn’t know the sitter
RCIN 912190 = Recognition-Based Preservation
- Survived because experts recognised its significance
- 250 years of careful custody by people who understood its importance
- Professional conservation by those closer to the Tudor period
- Protected from contamination by remaining outside the official labeling system
- Patriotic return when politically safe
The Irony of Art History
While scholars have spent decades defending an attribution based on questionable later inscriptions, the drawing with the strongest preservation evidence sat in the “unidentified” category—protected by its very anonymity from the contamination that affected the royal collection.
The real Anne Boleyn may have been hiding in plain sight, preserved not by royal decree but by centuries of English collectors who recognised her significance and ultimately returned her to the Crown when it was safe to do so.
The Bottom Line
Preservation patterns don’t lie. The Windsor Sketch was preserved as royal property – its survival tells us nothing about the sitter’s identity. RCIN 912190 was preserved by recognition – (approx) 200 years of experts understanding they were custodians of something precious to English heritage.
In the end, how a portrait survived often reveals more truth. And the preservation story of RCIN 912190 tells us everything we need to know about who she really was.