Jane Pemberton Small

Portrait of Jane Small, c. 1540, by Hans Holbein the Younger, V&A Museum no. P.40&A-1935 Jane Small (c. 1518–1602) was a daughter of Christopher Pemberton, a Northamptonshire gentleman. She is well known as the subject of a portrait miniature by the famous 16th-century German artist Hans Holbein the Younger, painted about 1540. Holbein was known as a painter of the English court, where his paintings included those of King Henry VIII and several of his wives.

Life Jane Pemberton married Nicholas Small, a London cloth merchant, probably in about 1540. It is around this time that the Holbein portrait was commissioned. Nicholas Small died in the winter of 1565/66, and Jane remarried within the year, to Nicholas Parkinson. Her new husband went on to be Master of the Cloth workers' Company in 1578/79.

Holbein portrait Jane Small's historical significance derives from a fine portrait miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger. She has been identified as the subject from the coat of arms painted on a separate piece of vellum at the back of the miniature, that of Robert Pemberton of Lancashire and of Rushden, Northamptonshire, who died in 1594. The arms are dated 1566 but were painted in the 17th century. Scholars at first supposed that the sitter was Margaret Throckmorton (d. 1576), Robert Pemberton's wife, who had connections with the royal court. More recently, Jane Small has been established as the sitter. She is shown wearing a carnation, which may symbolise her betrothal, and holding a leaf or sprig. Holbein's portrait, with its rich blue background, crisp outlines, and absence of shading, follows the conventions of the genre. Such miniatures were worn like a jewel.

In his last years, Holbein raised the art of the portrait miniature to its first peak of brilliance. His miniature portrait of Jane Small is considered a masterpiece of the genre. In the view of art historian Graham Reynolds:

[Holbein] portrays a young woman whose plainness is scarcely relieved by her simple costume of black-and-white materials, and yet there can be no doubt that this is one of the great portraits of the world. With remarkable objectivity Holbein has not added anything of himself or subtracted from his sitter's image; he has seen her as she appeared in a solemn mood in the cold light of his painting-room.