Portrait of A Young Girl (Christus, Berlin) - Identity of The Sitter

Identity of The Sitter

Gustav Waagen recorded lettering on frame that he said identified the sitter as, in his words, "eine Nichte des berühmten Talbots" (a niece of the famous Talbots). This reading has lead to a tradition that the sitter was of a member of the English Talbot family.

In 1863 George Scharf suggested that the work was intended as the right hand wing to a diptych with the 1446 Portrait of Edward Grimston, leading to speculation that the girl might be Grimston's first wife, Alice. This was rejected in 1913 by Grete Ring, on the basis that the neither the dimensions nor backgrounds of the panels match, and that the Berlin panel was most probably completed some 20–30 years after the Grimston portait. In addition Archibald Russell establishes that Grymeston had not married into the Talbot family.

Joel Upton supports Waagen's reading, suggesting that the "famous talbot" was John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed at the Battle of Castillon in 1453. However, this Talbot had only one niece, Ankaret, who died in infancy in 1421. Lorne Campbell suggests that, given the signature was in Latin, the identification may also have been, and that Waagen may have misinterpreted the word "nepos", which can also mean grandchild. From this Upton concludes that she was a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, either Anne or Margaret. It is known their parents married between 1444 and 1445, suggesting that the sitter was under 20 years at the time of the portrait.

She may have travelled to Bruges to attend the famously lavish wedding in 1468 of Margaret of York, sister of King Edward IV of England, to Charles the Bold.