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This subtle portrait is particularly significant in the study of British art, because the name of the artist is recorded on the back. Signatures or inscriptions that identify the artist are very rare on British paintings of this period.
Painted on oak panel, the work was cut down, at the sides and along the bottom. The section bearing the repeated French inscriptions 'faict par Johan Bettes Anglois' ('done by John Bettes, Englishman') was evidently retained when the panel was cut down, and affixed to the back. On the front of the painting, the shadows of duplicate inscriptions 'ANNO D[OMIN]I 1545' and 'XXVI' can be seen behind the present ones: '[?]1. 1545' and 'AETATIS . SV[..]'. Taken together, these indicate in translation that the work was painted in 'the year of our Lord'1545 and that the sitter was either aged 26 or in his 26th year.
The portrait bears resemblances to the work of Hans Holbein the Younger. Bettes may have worked with Holbein, but had first been recorded as carrying out decorative work for the Court as early as 1531-33. In 1546-47 he was paid for making portraits, possibly in miniature form, of Henry VIII and his last queen, Catherine Parr, works which do not survive.
The background of this picture, now ginger-brown in colour, was originally a deep blue - a hue often used by Holbein for his backgrounds. Bettes, however, used here a pigment called smalt, which is composed, broadly speaking, of ground glass, and tends to change colour irreversibly to brown or grey under the effect of light.
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