English: Portrait with overpaints cleaned off
Paul Ganz: The hitherto little-known portrait of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, which we publish here for the first time in its original form, was shown in 189o at the Tudor exhibition (No. 38 of the Catalogue), as a work by Hans Holbein the Younger [PLATE I]. It represents the powerful favourite and brother-in-law of King Henry VIII in his fifties, seated in an armchair covered with leather of cinnabar colour, ornamented with gold. The broad-shouldered, rather corpulent gentleman wears his black beret tilted over the right ear, on the top of the closely-fitting cap; his doublet is made of crimson cloth decorated with quilted ornamentation, while his white shirt is adorned with a black embroidered border, visible at the wrists and around the neck. His short-sleeved black velvet coat, trimmed with fur at the elbows, is partly covered by a surcoat made of black silk with a broad border of marten fur, over which hangs the collar of the Garter with St. George, and the ends of which are visible below the arms, hiding the chair to the left. His right hand is gloved in dark grey and holds the other glove, wihile his left holds a small bouquet of flowers, which no doubt has a symbolical meaning. The background is composed of a dark green curtain, ornamented with a red-brown design.