Roelof de Vos van Steenwijk

Roelof de Vos van Steenwijk, painted in 1541 and one of Holbein's late English portraits, belongs to the systematic documentation of the Tudor court's Dutch and Flemish connections that runs through his Hanseatic merchant series. The Netherlands had deep commercial and dynastic ties to England, and Dutch and Flemish merchants in London formed an important part of Holbein's patronage network alongside the Hanseatic Germans. The portrait's formal qualities — three-quarter pose, precise rendering of dress, psychologically direct gaze — are characteristic of his mature English manner, the face rendered with the complete attention that was simultaneously Holbein's method and his tribute to each human subject he painted.

Executed with meticulous realism and attention to psychological penetration, the work reveals Hans Holbein the Younger's characteristic approach to composition and surface. The treatment of light and the careful modulation of color create visual richness within a unified pictorial scheme.