`` Anne Boleyn , '' he said , `` was rather tall ... with black hair , and an oval face of a sallow complexion , as if troubled with jaundice . The most influential description of Anne , but also the least reliable , was written by the Catholic propagandist and polemicist Nicholas Sanders in 1586 , half a century after Anne 's death : `` Anne Boleyn was rather tall of stature , with black hair , and an oval face of a sallow complexion , as if troubled with jaundice .