I've always thought it more likely to be her, just based on my own notion that the other 2 portraits usually said to be her* look older than my mental image of Kathryn. There are a couple of preliminary sketches also speculated to be KH, that resemble your portrait, in my mind, anyway. What do you think?

*These two:

The first comes in 2 versions. I like the second better because it seems softer.

and this one, sometimes called the Toledo portrait (also speculated to be Elizabeth Seymour, Jane's sister):

The other 2 sketches that I think bear a resemblence to your pic are shown here with your pic in the middle:

Now obviously the sketches aren't an exact match and I may be way off base here (not the first time!), but I see a resemblence.

Mya-Elise. said:

The one that is thought to be Jane’s sister though i thought was already ruled out as Katheryn? I thought it was decided it was Jane’s sister?…

It's listed as “unknown, formerly known as KH”, but pops up constantly if you google-image KH. So in my mind, it's been disproved, but probably a lot of people don't know that.

It probably never occurred to them that a day would come when people didn't just know who they were! A bunch more have had dates or names attached to them later.

Elliemarianna, I see what looks like “ANNO” on the left side as you look at it. On the right, it says “ETATIS SVA* XVII”? Which I think means the sitter was 17 yrs old. So it definitely could be Kathryn Howard.

* SUA? SVÆ? SUÆ? The writing is kind of dark.

The portrait E put up definately looks like Catherine Parr but the stance looks identical to Elizabeth's portrait.

And about the possible Jane sister or KH portrait…if you compare that to Jane Seymour's portrait it looks really similar especially in the chin and nose.

This really does look like it could be Kitty Howard….I really like this portrait, thanks for sharing it Elliemarianna

Difficult to tell really, although I do agree Ellie’s portait does resemble a much older woman, from what we are led to believe about K.H. But then your’ve also got to look at the artist as well, they often used poetic brush licence and it could well be that in the artists eye, which is a lot different to what we actually percieve, is a lot different. He may have seen an older looking K.H and painted her according to what he saw.
Anne of Cleves is a prime example there. What Holbien saw obvisiously didn’t fit about what he was told about her by Cromwell and therefore painted a picture which he knew Henry would like. It seems as if the real picture of Anne was very different, recent tests, (they X rayed the picture or something) show that underneath the paint Anne of Cleves had a bigger and broader nose and a a very square jawline.
Mizlot The portrait you have posted has been indentified as Lady Jane Grey or a young Mary (Bloody) As we haven’t got an accurate description of K.H other than the fact she had auburn hair and was a flighty young girl it’s not easy to fit a portrait to that descrition. I’ve got a feeling that K.Has petite but with amber eyes and with more deep honey coloured hair, more than auburn.

MizLiot said

Boleyn said

Mizlot The portrait you have posted has been indentified as Lady Jane Grey or a young Mary (Bloody) As we haven’t got an accurate description of K.H other than the fact she had auburn hair and was a flighty young girl it’s not easy to fit a portrait to that descrition. I’ve got a feeling that K.Has petite but with amber eyes and with more deep honey coloured hair, more than auburn.

I understand that it has been identified as Lady Jane Grey, but that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. There is a portrait that for years was considered to be Katherine Parr, and is now considered to be Katherine of Aragon, just as one of the above portraits was named as Catherine Howard and is now named Elizabeth Seymour. See where I’m coming from? I believe the sitter in the last two portraits I posted here were Katherine Parr. The sitter has similar features and is wearing the same piece of jewellery. One is considered to be Lady Jane Grey, but it bears a striking resemblance to the one identified as Katherine Parr.

I apoligize if my previous posting sounded like a critism, it wasn’t intended that way. You are quite right of course there have been so many different portraits being bounced about that have been wrongly labelled.

chkylie said

A question about Katherine Howard… why do you think that the king decided to marry her with such a sense of urgency? I think that it is either 1) She thought that she was pregnant, galvanizing him to move so quickly in getting rid of Anne of Cleves, or 2) She would not have relations with him out of wedlock. Otherwise, since it was not like Anne of Cleves could not make heirs (being 25) I think that he would have just kept Katherine simply as a mistress.

Do you think that Henry believed Katherine was pregnant, or was she playing the same virtue game as Anne Boleyn/Jane Seymour?

The whole situation between Henry and K.H was one of a great big Ego trip for Henry.. He was no doubt attracted by K.H, but as for marrying again it was a massivee ego trip for him. Look at it this why, Henry was a fat stinking old man, whilst his main rival Francis was still quite attractive in his way, but was married to the emperor’s neice not a particulary happy marriage, and one really that was as most marriages were to cement peace between France and Spain. Henry’s marriage to K.H was a way of rubbing it in Francis’s face. something like this “Listen matey I may be old, but look what I have a beautiful young wife who adores me. What have you got? A Spanish cow who you allowed to be forced upon you. Ha Ha Ha Francis you will never have any woman as beautiful as my Rose without a thorn.” As for being pregnant at the time of her marriage to Henry, Nope. What you must understand is that at the time the Howards were having their noses well and truly pushed out of joint by the Seymours, and promoted K.H as an untouched Virgin etc, that appealed to Henry’s ego.