Betrothal portrait of Anne of Cleves

Henry VIII was shopping for a fourth wife in 1539, and since he could not travel to inspect the candidates himself, he sent the next best thing, his court painter. Holbein went to Duren, in the Rhineland, to paint the two sisters of the Duke of Cleves so the king could choose between them from their likenesses. Henry picked Anne on the strength of this picture and married her in January 1540. It went wrong almost at once. He complained that she looked nothing like the portrait, the marriage was annulled within months, and Anne, unusually among his wives, came out of it well, with a comfortable settlement and a long, quiet life. Holbein painted her face-on, calm and richly dressed, on parchment laid down on canvas. A recent cleaning brought back the bright blue behind her that had darkened over the centuries.