Sir Henry Wyatt

For a long time this portrait was dated to 1528, near the end of Holbein's first stay in England, when he was painting his way through the Tudor court. Tree-ring dating of the oak panel has since complicated that. The wood suggests the picture cannot have been made before about 1535, which would put the sitter, the old royal servant Sir Henry Wyatt, near 75 and only a year or two from death. Wyatt had served two kings, Henry VII and his son Henry VIII, and kept his head through decades of court intrigue. Holbein worked here in distemper, a quick glue-based paint more common for banners than for panels, and modelled the tired, watchful face against a plain green ground.