The portrait bears resemblances to the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, the great German artist who had redefined the public images of Henry VIII and his Court. Bettes may have worked with Holbein, but had first been recorded as carrying out decorative work for the Court as early as 1531–1533. In 1546–1547 he was paid for making portraits, possibly in miniature form, of Henry VIII and his last queen, Catherine Parr, works which do not survive. The background of this picture, now ginger-brown in colour, was originally a deep blue – a hue often used by Holbein for his backgrounds. Bettes, however, used here a pigment called smalt, which is composed, broadly speaking, of ground glass, and tends to change colour irreversibly to brown or grey under the effect of light. In the eighteenth century, this portrait was recorded in the collection at Brome Hall, Suffolk, which had descended from the family of Henry VIII's physician William Butts (c.1485–1545) – a gentleman who, with his wife, had been portrayed by Holbein himself. It has been suggested that the present sitter may be Butts's third son, Edmund, who was born after 1516 and who inherited property from his father in 1545, the year inscribed on this painting.

Further reading: Karen Hearn (ed.), 'Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery 1995, p.46, cat. no.10, reproduced in colour Rica Jones, 'The Methods and Materials of Three Tudor Artists: Bettes, Hilliard and Ketel', in Karen Hearn (ed.), 'Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery 1995, pp.231-235. Karen Hearn October 2000.