Susanna Horenbout at the Tudor Court: Hans Holbein’s Forgotten Sitter?

Amongst Hans Holbein’s chalk drawings in the Royal Collection is a sketch of a young woman identified as Grace Newport, Lady Parker, dating to c. 1540-43. Other proposed identifications are Elizabeth Calthorpe, second wife of Henry Parker, and Jane Parker, wife of George Boleyn and sister-in-law to the executed Queen Anne. This paper seeks to suggest that there is compelling evidence to propose that the “Lady Parker” from Holbein’s sketch may be Susanna Horenbout, miniaturist at the Tudor court and honorary gentlewoman to at least three of Henry VIII’s queens. This paper aims to bring Susanna’s potential connection to the identity of Hans Holbein’s “Lady Parker” into clearer focus.