After Hans Holbein II

After the lost original of the mid-1530s, of which there are several 16th Century copies, notably the one in the National Portrait Gallery, London, c. 1535, measuring 16 x 11 in. However, the present work has a longer torso and is closer in size to that in the collection of the Earl of Harrowby, Sandon Hall, Stafford, which was previously accepted as by Holbein by Chamberlain and Schmid, but of which John Rowlands writes: 'although it is undoubtedly the best version of the portrait surviving...is evidently by a talented follower working from the drawing now at Windsor' (Holbein: The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger, p. 233). The Harrowby version is inscribed 'IE. OBIAS. A. WUI. IE. DOIS.: IE SERS. A QUI. ME. PLAIS[T] ET. SUIS. A. QUI. ME. MERIT[E] AETATIS SUAE 25 ANNO 1535.'. Another version, in a private collection (formerly Marquis de la Rosire), bearing the same inscriptions as the Harrowby portrait, is painted in a feigned oval, though the present work would appear to be unique in its oval format.