Unknown, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1850

This decorative miniature was painted in about 1850 in England or France at the onset of the Tudor Revival era. Inspired by a renewed fascination with King Henry VIII and his court, the portrait—and several nearly identical versions—was probably modeled after portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/1498–1543) of Henry’s six wives, particularly Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. The sitter’s structured gabled hood was popular in sixteenth-century England. In contrast, the miniature’s frame resembles those made for the French tourist trade in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Given by Mrs. H. F. McElroy, Kansas City, MO, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935 [1].

Notes

[1] Henry Francis McElroy (1865–1939) was the City Manager of Kansas City, Missouri, from 1926 to 1939. He was married to Marie Orbison (1879–1920) from 1906 until her death in 1920, and it does not appear that he ever remarried. The McElroys’ son was also named Henry Frances McElroy (1909–1990). He married Elizabeth Edwards Beasley (b. ca. 1913) around 1933. While it is possible that Elizabeth was the donor of the portrait at age 22, it is also possible that upon Marie McElroy’s death in 1920, the family gave the portrait to the Mary Atkins’ Trust, which was established in 1911 (before the museum’s opening in 1933). It was officially accessioned into the museum’s collection on January 1, 1935.

Unknown, Anne Boleyn, 16th century, watercolor on ivory, previously in the inventory of R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Louisiana.

3rd Annual Kansas City Philharmonic Opera Festival, Kansas City Music Hall, March 31–April 2, 1955, no cat.