Anne Boleyn

For my final makeup I have decided to use this portrait of Anne Boleyn. This was painted somewhere between 1533-1536 by an unkown artist. Anne Boleyn was painted as she was the second wife of King Henry VIII.

It was sometime in-between the end of 1525 and the middle of 1526 that Henry fell passionately in love with Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas Boleyn had had the knightship of Bath created for him at Henry's coronation. This enabled him to give his eldest daughter Mary the opportunity to experience foreign countries. Anne and Mary attended Queen Claude's household, a very exclusive finishing school. When Mary came back to England she found a place in the court and became one of Henry's mistresses. Her father at this time was the treasurer to the King so when Anne finished school he also found a place in court for Anne. During her reign as Queen Catherine had failed to produce Henry the son he so desired and he had become despairing. Before even meeting Anne he had been considering how to divorce Catherine. When Anne arrived Henry fell for her but unlike her sister she refused to make do with being his mistress - she dared to insist on marriage and this to Henry made her unattainable which in turn made him want her all the more desperately.

During the time whilst Henry fought for a divorce Anne had a lot of suitors and attention at the court. Henry sent Anne love letter throughout 1527 begging her to be with him and that she would be his only mistress. However Anne didn't relent - she wanted marriage and nothing else. It took a full 5 years for Henry to divorce Catherine and came to claiming that she had been married to her half-brother before Henry. Finally in December to 1532 Anne moved into the palace with Henry and was pronounced pregnant by mid-January. They were married in private on the 25th of January. Anne was hated my most of the country as she had seduced Henry, they suspected witchcraft and deceit. on the 7th of September 1532 Anne gave birth to a girl. Henry was most dissapointed at her not managing to produce a son and no celebration was held in the child honor. By April Anne said she was pregnant again but later had to admit that her hopes were false. After Christmas of 1534 Henry had begun to plan how he could now get rid of Anne and had started taking mistresses again which Anne was most against.

 In Autumn of 1536 Anne became pregnant again and whilst she was away for the health of the baby Henry fell for Jane Seymour who would become his third wife. In mid-January Henry had a riding accident and the shock of it reportedly caused Anne to miscarry (doctors said the fetus had the appearance of a male). By now Henry new that Anne would not give him the son he desired and he had fallen out of love with her. He accused her of having an affair with five men and she was imprisoned. All five men were executed before Anne herself was beheaded on May 19th 1536.

I chose this portrait because I feel it has a beautiful simplicity to it. The features are distinctive from the narrow face with elongated nose and chin to the distinctive eyebags yet they are still subtle and believable. The prosthetics will all have to be small and subtle yet they will hopefully make a huge difference to recreate this iconic portrait. When I saw this portrait in real life it captured my attention therefore I want to recreate it as my final piece. The painting doesn't have a great amount of texture and is distinctly smooth meaning I will have to make the skin look more perfect and painted-like. The look is very classically Tudor. I believe the history of Anne Boleyn I have given above is important to my research as it helps me to understand her character. It is interesting to note that as Anne was a figure of huge importance at the time this was painted, her beauty may have been enhanced to give a more striking and regal air. This was done with many monarchs of time quite notably Henry VIII himself. I will now chose a model who has a similar look to Annes.