Two small sketches by Renaissance master Hans Holbein have long puzzled art historians. One, known as the Windsor sketch, was believed to depict Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, while the other, labeled the Unidentified Woman, remained anonymous. Now, researchers using artificial intelligence have discovered that the unnamed woman might actually be the tragic queen, and the Windsor sketch could be Boleyn's mother.
AI Analysis of Holbein Corpus
A team at the University of Bradford analyzed the works, which belong to the royal collection. They found that the sketches may have been incorrectly inscribed in the 1700s, leading to centuries of misunderstanding. The independent scholar Karen Davies, who studied the Holbein corpus of over 80 images, suspected the Windsor sketch was misidentified. The sitter is light-skinned with red hair, while Boleyn was often described as having a darker complexion.
Davies noted that the corpus is known for inconsistent labeling; for example, an image of Boleyn's cousin Henry Howard was actually of his father. In a study published in March, Davies estimated that fewer than 15% of the works have contemporary documentary verification.
How the AI Model Worked
Davies collaborated with Prof. Hassan Ugail, director of the centre of visual computing at Bradford University. Ugail developed an AI model to recognize paintings by old masters, previously attributing a painting to Raphael that had puzzled experts for decades. “We looked at the entire collection and compared one image against another to create a huge matrix,” Ugail said. “It clustered paintings that were close to each other.”
The analysis placed the Unidentified Woman in the Boleyn-Howard cluster, while the Windsor sketch aligned more closely with images of Elizabeth Howard, Boleyn's mother.
Opening Debate on Holbein's Works
Davies hopes the analysis will spark debate. “I think now we’ve opened up the question. It’s not like we’re making a claim and that’s the thing settled. I hope that there’s a debate about reassessment more widely,” she said. A Royal Collection Trust spokesperson noted that the identity of the unnamed sitter has long been debated. “In sharing the royal collection and opening it up for research, we welcome further discussion, debate and new information,” they said.
Hans Holbein’s portraits of the Tudor court are among the finest Renaissance-era artworks. Born in Augsburg, Germany, Holbein worked in Basel before moving to England, where he specialized in portraits and sketches. He fled the chaos of the Reformation in Europe but ended up amid the suspicion and paranoia of Henry VIII’s court. Holbein painted portraits of Thomas More, executed in 1535, and Boleyn, beheaded the following year.
Earlier this year, the most well-known Boleyn image, the Hever “Rose” portrait, was analyzed. Historians suggested that the Elizabethan artist responsible sought to create a “visual rebuttal” to claims she was a witch with a sixth finger on her right hand.
