Mary, Lady Heveningham by Hans Holbein the Younger

This drawing has been reworked by other hands than Holbein's. Art historian K. T. Parker called the black fall of the headdress "daubed over" (Parker, p.46). The drawing has also been heavily rubbed. Parker detected Holbein's remaining strokes in the outline of the décolletage and in the sleeves. The sitter has been speculated as the same as that in Holbein's English Lady at Winterthur, but the connection is doubtful. Lady Heveningham's identity is not certain: she has been thought to be either Mary Shelton (d. c. 1570), daughter of Sir John Shelton and second wife of Sir Anthony Heveningham, or Anthony Heveningham's mother, who was also a member of the Shelton family. The inscription, added later, is not necessarily reliable.

Reference

• K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor Castle, Oxford: Phaidon, 1945, OCLC 822974.