Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper

The miniature is executed in gouache (bodycolour) on vellum, a small oval support measuring about 1¾ inches in diameter. Hans Holbein applied the paint with fine brushwork to achieve crisp detail, using a limited palette of greens, blacks and gold accents. The sitter, Margaret Roper, is rendered in three‑quarters view, her narrow face framed by a gable hood with embroidered lappets, a long veil, and a fur‑lined black gown.

She holds a green book adorned with gold rings, while a gold inscription records her age. The work was created circa 1535 during Holbein’s second London visit and later entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains in good condition as a pendant pair with a portrait of her husband.

Created during 1535–36, the Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper was painted by Hans Holbein the Younger on vellum using bodycolour. Art historians date the work to the artist's second visit to London, likely produced shortly after Sir Thomas More's execution in 1535. The piece functions as a pendant to a portrait of Roper's husband, William Roper.

For centuries, the miniature remained in private hands until it was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1950. This acquisition was made possible through a donation from the Rogers Fund. The work depicts Roper at age thirty, as indicated by the Latin inscription on the piece, and stands as the second of two known Holbein portraits of the sitter.

The Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, accessioned through the Rogers Fund in 1950. The work was included in the exhibition “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” where it was presented alongside other works from the period.

Scholars note that the miniature was likely executed shortly after Sir Thomas More’s 1535 execution, situating the work within the tense political climate of Henry VIII’s court, and it forms part of a pendant pair with a portrait of Roper’s husband, William Roper; the piece was painted during Holbein’s second London visit in the mid‑1530s and is one of more than one hundred miniatures he produced while in England, reflecting his prolific engagement with English patronage, and it was later exhibited in The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England before entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection

Although less celebrated than Holbein’s grand portraits, the Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper is nonetheless central to the scholarly understanding of Tudor portrait miniatures. Its inclusion in the exhibition “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England” and its presence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection highlight its recognized importance. The work is noted as one of a pair with a pendant portrait of Roper’s husband and as part of a series of over one hundred miniatures Holbein produced while in England, underscoring its role in shaping the miniaturist tradition that influenced later European portraitists.

This small gouache painting, titled Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper, was created by the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger between 1535 and 1536. It depicts Margaret Roper, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, who later married the English biographer William Roper. The work is now part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.