Holbein was sent to Brussels in March 1538 to take the portrait of the sixteen year-old Christina, a prospective bride for Henry VIII. The King was insistent on informative portraits, and Holbein has ensured that Christina’s face and hands are clearly presented against her widow’s black.

The placing of her shadow on the left, the strong vertical shadow to the right and the suppression of further spatial information all subtly serve to propel her figure towards the viewer, as if in seductive motion.

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Derich Born (1509/10 – after 1549) was a Hanseatic merchant from Cologne. The Latin inscription asserts that if a voice was added the picture would seem to be Derich himself and that it is doubtful whether the painter or the subject’s father produced the image – that is, whether this is the real Derich or simply a picture.

Born is positioned as though to challenge the viewer in a confident frontal pose, his body swivelled, his chin lined up with the point of his elbow.

The portrait offers few clues as to the identity of the sitter but his high-necked shirt and short hair suggest it was painted in the latter part of Holbein’s career in England, around 1540.

The near-frontal composition appears to centre on the line of the white cuff of the left hand, which aligns with the inner corner of the left eye. The gloves were painted over the black coat, suggesting they were a late addition; the fingers were then slightly adjusted to accommodate this.

The chalk modelling of this drawing is extensive, particularly around the eyes, where it evokes deeply recessed eye sockets. But Holbein has also used ink with both pen and brush. He makes bold use of an ink wash to evoke light and shade on the hat and to suggest clumps of hair on the right, while delineating very fine curling wisps of hair which stand out against the background on the left and can be seen in the beard. The notes on the costume seem to record textures of satin and velvet rather than colour (though S may stand for ‘schwarz’, black).

The sitter may be the daughter of Lord Zouch, who begged to run away because she was illtreated by her stepmother and became Lady-in- Waiting to Jane Seymour, or she may be Anne Gainsford, Lady-in-Waiting to Anne Boleyn who married George Zouche of Codnor; in that case the inscription would indicate a ‘Mistress Zouch’.

Holbein used the full frontal view for the portraits Henry VIII required of his potential brides in order to make sure no defect escaped him, and possibly this portrait too might have been intended as a marriage portrait.

The drawing has been cut out along its outlines and stuck to another sheet of paper by a later owner. However, much of the effect of the drawing remains. The sitter’s glinting brown eyes are worked up in unusual detail with a variety of media: her pupils have catch-lights, her irises show clearly the radiating muscles and her lower eyelids are particularly prominent. Her very long and minutely observed eyebrows are also drawn with ink in great detail. By contrast Holbein is economical in showing a single pattern repeat for the embroidery of her collar.

Margaret Bacon, Lady Butts, was the wife of Sir William Butts (about 1485–1545), the royal physician portrayed in the Barber-Surgeons portrait (Room 7). She wears a carnation-like flower on her dress.

The drawing is unsparing in the delineation of Lady Butts’ wrinkles. According to the portrait made after this drawing (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston) she was aged fifty seven.

The Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554) held a succession of high posts at Henry VIII’s court: in this portrait of about 1539 he carries the white staff of Lord High Treasurer and the gold baton of Earl Marshal as well as wearing the Order of the Garter.

Norfolk was the father of the poet Earl of Surrey (Room 2), and both were imprisoned for treason in 1546, but only Norfolk escaped execution. The Duke, said to be ‘small and spare of stature’, appears broad and imposing as he stands in this three-quarter length portrait, a format Holbein used only rarely.

Dr Chambers or Chamber (1470–1549) was a cleric and physician to Henry VIII, one of the founders of the Royal College of Physicians in 1518, and dean of St Stephen’s Westminster.

Dr Chambers is shown on the left of the Barber-Surgeons portrait (Room 7). This portrait is adapted from that image: Chambers’ upward glance there was adjusted so that he looks straight ahead, and the hands gripping the gloves were added.

The age recorded on the portrait is evidently incorrect.