Lady Lee (Margaret Wyatt, born about 1509)

Lady Lee, born Margaret Wyatt, grew up in a family closely connected to the court of Henry VIII. Her father, Henry Wyatt, served as treasurer of the king’s chamber, and her brother, Thomas, was the foremost Tudor poet and an ambassador. She is shown here at the age of thirty-four, sumptuously dressed in the courtly fashion of the early 1540s. The painting is close to the manner of Holbein, but the attention paid to decorative effects and linear details at the expense of life-like portrayal of the sitter is indicative of workshop production. The portrait was likely based on a Holbein drawing.

Credit: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913