Image: Margaret Giggs by Hans Holbein the Younger

Description: Portrait study of Margaret Giggs. Black and coloured chalks on paper, 38.5 × 27.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor. Margaret Giggs (1508–70) was the foster daughter of Sir Thomas More. This drawing is one of seven fine surviving studies drawn by Holbein for his group portrait study of Thomas More's family. In the family portrait study, Margaret is leaning towards Thomas More's father, Sir John More, as if showing him a passage in a book, and she wears a different headdress. In a copy of Holbein's lost painting by Rowland Lockey, however, she wears the same cap as in the present drawing. Margaret Giggs attended Thomas More's execution in 1535. She married her tutor, the physician John Clement, by whom she had 5 children. She died in exile in Belgium. The inscription "Mother Iack", added later, is demonstrably false (Susan Foister, Holbein in England, London: Tate, 2006, ISBN 1854376454, p. 38; K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London: Phaidon, 1945, p. 37).
Title: Margaret Giggs by Hans Holbein the Younger
Credit: Royal Collection
Author: Hans Holbein the Younger
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No