Forthcoming

Inscription: Inscribed (horizontally, in gold): Ao ÆTATIS XXXo

by descent in the Roper family; Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild, London and Halton, England (by 1906–d. 1918); his daughter, Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, London and Bretby Park, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire (1918–24; sold to Duveen); [Duveen, London, 1924–28; given to Goldman]; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Goldman, New York (1928–his d. 1937); Mrs. Henry Goldman, New York (1937–48; given or sold to Duveen); [Duveen, New York, 1948–50; sold to MMA]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Four Centuries of Miniature Painting," January 19–March 19, 1950, unnumbered cat. (p. 2, lent anonymously).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "German Drawings: Masterpieces from Five Centuries," May 10–June 10, 1956, suppl. no. 200 (with MMA 50.69.1).

London. National Portrait Gallery. "'The King's Good Servant': Sir Thomas More, 1477/8–1535," November 25, 1977–March 12, 1978, no. 174 (with MMA 50.69.1).

New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "Holbein and the Court of Henry VIII," April 21–July 30, 1983, no. 3.

London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520–1620," July 9–November 6, 1983, no. 28.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 5.

London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Gothic: Art for England, 1400–1547," October 9, 2003–January 18, 2004, no. 163b.

London. Tate Britain. "Holbein in England," September 28, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 38.

H. C. Marillier. "Christie's" 1766 to 1925. London, 1926, p. 225.

Paul Ganz. Die Handzeichnungen Hans Holbeins d.J.: Kritischer Katalog. Berlin, 1937, p. 21, under no. 93, erroneously as in the Duveen collection; identifies the sitters in this and MMA 50.69.1 as Margaret More and William Roper.

Paul Ganz. Letter. March 31, 1948, as "very good quality" works by Holbein.

Paul Ganz. The Paintings of Hans Holbein. London, 1950, p. 258, no. 135, pl. 176, erroneously as in the collection of Mrs. Henry Goldman.

F. Grossmann. "Holbein Studies—II." Burlington Magazine 93 (April 1951), p. 114.

Josephine L. Allen. "Some Notes on Miniatures." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (April 1955), pp. 244–45, ill.

E. E. Reynolds. Margaret Roper, Eldest Daughter of St. Thomas More. New York, 1960, pp. 30, 142, pl. V.

Leo R. Schidlof. The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18, and 19th Centuries. Graz, Austria, 1964, vol. 1, p. 368; vol. 2, p. 975; vol. 3, pl. 290, fig. 569a.

Roy Strong. Tudor & Jacobean Portraits. London, 1969, vol. 1, p. 269, states that the portraits are by Holbein but that the identities of the sitters "remain unproven".

J. B. Trapp and Hubertus Schulte Herbrüggen. "The King's Good Servant": Sir Thomas More, 1477/8–1535. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. London, 1977, pp. 87, 89, no. 174 (with MMA 50.69.1), ill.

Daphne Foskett. Collecting Miniatures. Woodbridge, England, 1979, p. 47, as recently added to the list of "possibly authentic" miniatures by Holbein.

Jane Roberts. Holbein. London, 1979, p. 96, no. 92, ill. p. 97, believes it impossible to date the pair of miniatures precisely, and notes that they are "tentatively attributed to Holbein by most scholars, but the hand seems slightly different to that seen in the artist's other miniatures".

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 263, 266, fig. 476 (color, with 50.69.1).

Roy Strong in The English Miniature. Exh. cat., Yale Center for British Art. New Haven, 1981, p. 36, fig. 52.

Roy Strong. The English Renaissance Miniature. New York, 1983, pp. 46–47, no. 4, fig. 43.

Roy Strong in Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520–1620. Exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 1983, pp. 46–47, no. 28.

John Rowlands. Holbein: The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger. Oxford, 1985, pp. 90, 150, no. M. 3, pl. 128, dates the miniatures probably 1536 on the basis of the inscription on the portrait of Margaret.

Graham Reynolds. English Portrait Miniatures. rev. ed. [1st ed., 1952]. Cambridge, 1988, p. 6.

John Rowlands. The Age of Dürer and Holbein: German Drawings, 1400–1550. Exh. cat.Cambridge, 1988, p. 234.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 12, 14, 69–70, no. 5, colorpl. 5 and ill. p. 69.

Katharine Baetjer. "British Portraits in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57 (Summer 1999), pp. 6–7, ill. (color).

Susan Foister in Gothic: Art for England, 1400–1547. Exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2003, p. 299, no. 163b, ill (color), believes that the likeness of Margaret is based on a separate sitting, after Holbein produced the life-size painting of the family of Sir Thomas More (1526–28) and after her father's execution.

Susan Foister. Holbein and England. New Haven, 2004, p. 98.

Susan Foister. Holbein in England. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2006, pp. 41, 46, 175, no. 38, ill. (color).

Margaret Roper was the eldest child and favorite daughter of Sir Thomas More, and renowned for her learning. She is represented in the lower right corner of Holbein's sketch for a group portrait, painted between 1526 and 1528, of Sir Thomas More and his family (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel). The painting has been lost, but three sixteenth-century versions by Rowland Lockey survive: a full-size copy at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, a full-size variant in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and a miniature variant in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

There is a panel by Holbein at Knole House in Kent, possibly depicting Margaret Roper, but also known as Queen Katherine of Aragon. A miniature after Holbein in the Royal Collection is inscribed, "Anna Roper Thomae Mori Filia. W. Hollar pinxit post Holbeinium, 1652". The "Anna" is evidently a mistake for "Margaret" or "Mar.," or possibly the original was actually a portrait of Margaret's mother, Alice.

This is the pendant to MMA 50.69.1.