Lady Mary Butts

Art Historical Context

This etching, created in 1649 by Wenceslaus Hollar, captures the likeness of a Tudor-era noblewoman in a compact, intimate format. Hollar, a prolific Bohemian printmaker working in England, produced this work as the first state of three, using delicate line work to translate an earlier painted portrait into print. The sheet, measuring just over five by three inches, reflects the artist’s skill in reproductive etching, a technique that allowed wider circulation of famous images from the previous century. The composition is closely associated with Hans Holbein the Younger, whose original portrait of Margaret, Lady Butts—wife of Henry VIII’s physician—served as the source. Hollar’s version preserves the sitter’s dignified pose and period costume while demonstrating the 17th-century interest in preserving and disseminating Holbein’s celebrated likenesses of the English court. Such prints helped sustain the fame of Tudor portraiture long after the originals were created. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this work exemplifies how etching functioned both as an artistic medium and a tool of historical record. Its fine detail and modest scale made it accessible to collectors, ensuring that images of prominent women from the previous age continued to circulate and inspire new audiences.

About the Artist

Wenceslaus Hollar|Margaret, Lady Butts|Hans Holbein the Younger · 1607–1677

Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...