Miniature portrait of Jane Pemberton Small

/ Kirstin Miller
Mrs Jane Small, portrait miniature, by Hans Holbein the younger, about 1540. A woman faces right she's wearing a black dress with a white head covering, wearing a carnation, a ring and holding a small stem.

Jane Pemberton was born around 1522, my 12th great aunt. Jane is the sister of Robert Pemberton who is Philippa Mockford Speedy’s 10th great grandpa.

This tiny painted portrait of Jane is about 2 inches, and considered a miniature masterpiece. The artist is Hans Holbein the Younger. He was born about 1497 in Augsburg, Germany and was famous for painting King Henry the 8th and his royal court including two [not murdered] wives: Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves.

The identity of the woman in the painting was a mystery for a while. It would’ve been incredibly rare for an everyday person to have a portrait by the royal court painter. Recent research show Jane and her husband Nicholas Small were neighbors of Holbein in London. Mr Small, a well known cloth merchant, probably paid his neighbor to paint a small portrait of his wife. Or maybe it was a wedding gift from Holbein to his neighbors, the Smalls.

The portrait was most likely painted in 1536, “vellum stuck to a playing card with five hearts version, circular, 52 mm 2 1/16 in. diameter”. Inscribed in Latin, “In the year of her age 23.” It was first recorded in 1865, then JP Morgan owned it for awhile, finally it was sold to Victoria and Albert Museum in 1935. The portrait image is in the public domain, the original still kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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