Portrait of william fitzwilliam, 1st earl of southampton. Black and coloured chalks, metalpoint, on pink-primed paper, 38. 8 × 27. 4 cm, royal collection, windsor castle. The retracing of outlines with metalpoint seems to have been done when transferring the design to a panel for painting. No painting of fitzwilliam by holbein himself survives, but a copy of a full-length portrait of the sitter, purporting to date from 1542, is in the fitzwilliam museum, cambridge. Art historian k. T. Parker, in his study of the windsor drawings, judged the sketch as "one of the most impressive and purest of the series" (parker, p. 54). William fitzwilliam, 1st earl of southampton (c. 1490–1542), was lord privy seal in 1553, lord high admiral, 1536–40, and became earl of southampton in 1537. Date: circa 1536-40.
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