Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling | |
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Artist | Hans Holbein the Younger |
Year | c. 1526–1528[1] |
Medium | Oil on oak[1] |
Dimensions | 56 cm × 38.8 cm (22 in × 15.3 in)[1] |
Location | National Gallery, London |
Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling is an oil-on-oak portrait completed in around 1526–1528 by German Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger. The painting shows a demurely dressed young woman sitting against a plain blue background and holding in her lap a squirrel on a chain eating a nut; a starling sits on a grape vine (Vitis vinifera) in the background with its beak pointing at her right ear. The grape, a Biblical motif, for Holbein was a symbol of abundance and wealth. The subject of this portrait is believed to be Anne Lovell, wife of Sir Francis Lovell (d. 1551), an Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII.
Holbein painted the portrait during his first visit to England, which lasted from summer 1526 to summer 1528. David J. King suggests it might have been done in winter, since the sitter wears a warm fur hat. During this first stay, Holbein worked largely for the circle of Thomas More and his connections: his drawing of More's ward Margaret Giggs shows her wearing the same type of hat. Holbein also painted portraits of Sir Henry Guildford and Mary, Lady Guildford, with similar decorative foliage in the background.[2]
At this stage of his career, Holbein often adapted such designs from pattern books; in his last decade he set his portrait subjects against plain backgrounds in a more iconic style. Art historian John Rowlands judges this painting "the most charming of the portraits from Holbein's first stay in England".[3]