HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger
(b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London)

Lady Lee (Margaret Wyatt)

1542-43
Oil and gold on oak panel, 44 x 34 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This painting is probably a workshop copy of a lost original by Hans Holbein the Younger. The inscription on the background shows the age of the sitter whose name was identified by another portrait indicating her name, too.

Margaret Wyatt belonged to a family with close connections to the court of Henry VII and Henry VIII. With her erect posture and exceedingly angular features, this aristocratic lady projects a cold, rather distant demeanour in this portrait. She is sumptuously dressed in the court style of the day.