Grace, Lady Parker by Hans Holbein the Younger

The identity of the sitter, inscribed merely as "The Lady Parker", has caused confusion among scholars and is not certain. Jane Parker, Lady Rochford, who played a part in the tragedies of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, was ruled out by art historian K. T. Parker in his study of the Windsor drawings. He concluded that the sitter was the first or second wife of Sir Henry Parker, heir to Henry, Lord Morley, whom he predeceased in 1553. (Parker was certain she was not Lord Morley's wife, Alice.) Sir Henry Parker's first wife was Grace Parker and his second Elizabeth Parker, He married the latter in 1549, after Holbein had died, but the inscription also postdates Holbein and Holbein may just possibly have drawn her before she was married. Grace Parker is the more likely subject, if the inscription is reliable.

Reference

• K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor, London: Phaidon, 1945, p. 56.