Tag Archives: Gold

The infamous Holbein portraits of her show as a simple girl with a kind face, rather heart-shaped or round. She is ornately dressed in red and gold and veils, with distinctive eyes that look rather catlike, almond-shaped or veiled.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLA_vanda_Miniature_of_Anne_of_Cleves.jpg

They say also that her hair was dark hair, you can see her dark eyebrows in some of the portraits. She’s also mentioned to be tall with a womanly body, large breasts etc. Yet Henry reacts to her as if she were a monster, where he can’t even bare to touch her. Are there any other reports that there was something this unsettling about her? None of her features sound particularly poor. Going by the portraits I think she looks more attractive than any of Henry’s other wives, albeit he claims the pictures were embellished. Holbein was still a detailed and realistic artist, whom I don’t believe would want to risk angering the king by tricking him. How would he profit from changing the subject of his art to the point where she was no longer recognizable? Surely there had to be a basic likeness to his picture, and that picture was evidently acceptable to Henry VIII, as he agreed to marry her though he had seen it. I feel there were lager issues in play than what Anne looked like, perhaps they just didn’t get along, or the prospect of the alliance with Cleves was no longer as appealing? Are there other contemporaries who found something hideous about her looks?

Is there anyone out there with a breadth of knowledge of this point in Henry’s reign? What do you think is more likely? That there was something strange about Anne? Or were there other things that Henry was unhappy with that were the answer, or at least a contributing factor?