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ELIZABETHAN PICTURES
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charming drawing at Windsor of Surrey by Holbein, in which his prim, round face is looking full at the spectator. Here he looks to the right, and has his left hand on his sword-hilt. Experts will not admit the picture to be Holbein's, but it is impossible to deny its beauty and charm. More striking still is the "John Reskimeer of Cornwall" (No. 610), given to Charles I. and admittedly by Holbein. He wears a black cap falling slightly over the right eye. The left side of his face is turned towards the spectator. He has a long yellow or reddish beard and a pale face. It is a masterly picture.

Other Holbeins may be mentioned here, though they also came from Charles I.'s collection. The splendid portrait of Froben[1] the great Bale printer, solid, capable, humorous; the inferior Erasmus;[2] the Elizabeth Lady Vaux,[3] are all well worth consideration—all interesting and significant portraits.

There is a very doubtful portrait of Queen Mary I., No. 640. This is more probably Christina, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Her husband, Philip II. (No. 633), in a "black cassock lined with white fur," as Charles I.'s catalogue says, painted probably at the time of his marriage, is very probably the work of the great Fleming, Sir Antonio More, Holbein's successor as the chief portrait-painter of the English court. The reign of Elizabeth can be well studied here—at least

  1. No. 603.
  2. No. 597.
  3. No. 591. Of this the drawing is at Windsor, and was engraved by Bartolozzi, as was the Reskimeer.