Retrato de un joven inglés

We do not actually know who he is. The old title calls him a young Englishman, though the names proposed for the sitter are mostly Italian, and none has stuck. What everyone agrees on is the look he gives you, straight out of the canvas, from grey eyes Titian painted with startling clarity. By about 1540 Titian was the most sought-after portraitist in Europe, working for popes and for the emperor Charles V, and here he does almost the whole picture in black, grey and white, letting a little pink in the face carry the warmth. The man stands against a plain grey ground and casts a single soft shadow, so there is almost nothing to look at but those pale, level eyes.