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Mystery sitter in Holbein portrait could be Anne Boleyn, AI analysis finds
Researchers say works may have been incorrectly inscribed in 1700s, leading to centuries-long misunderstanding
They are two small sketches by the Renaissance master Hans Holbein: one has long been considered to be a portrait of Henry VIII’s doomed second wife, Anne Boleyn, and the other is of an unknown woman whose name was lost to time.
Now researchers using AI have discovered that the unnamed woman might be the tragic queen after all, while the other figure could in fact be Boleyn’s mother.
The works, which belong to the royal collection and are known as the Windsor sketch and the Unidentified Woman respectively, were analysed by a team at the University of Bradford, who found that they might have been incorrectly inscribed in the 1700s, leading to a misunderstanding that has lasted centuries.
Scientists believe they have found previously unknown sketch of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn won the heart of King Henry VIII, gave birth to one of the country's most well-known monarchs, and lost her head in 1536 – but her appearance has continued to challenge art historians and online sleuths.
Now a computer science team believes they have discovered a previously unknown sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits.
Boleyn became Henry VIII's second wife in 1533, but her reign was short-lived: approximately three years. She was accused of adultery, incest and treason and was executed.
All the painted portraits that exist of her were made after her lifetime, creating a mystery around what she actually looked like and making her appearance the subject of fascination and debate for centuries.
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Anne Boleyn: the promise of a face, and what this new research actually reveals
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On May 19, 2026, it will be 490 years since the execution of Anne Boleyn, a death that not only ended a reign of roughly one thousand days but also inaugurated one of the most unstable narratives in the history of the English monarchy, shaped by fragile accusations, political rearrangements, and an almost immediate rewriting of who she was.
Nearly five centuries later, what is striking is not only that her guilt or innocence, her ambition or her role in the break with Rome are still debated, but that an even more basic question remains unresolved: what did Anne Boleyn’s face look like?
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