Did a student of Hans Holbein the Younger draw this sketch of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester?
According to the Royal Collection Trust:
Although long attributed to Holbein, this drawing is probably by another artist, who echoes Holbein's use of prink prepared paper. The pink priming has been rougly applied in comparison to that on the Holbein sheets. The facial features are more clumsily drawn than on any of Holbein's drawings and the modelling is largely in watercolour or wash rather than chalk. The drawing probably dates from the later sixteenth century when Fisher began to be revered as a Catholic martyr and large numbers of painted and printed portraits were produced to meet a growing demand for his image. A date in the later sixteenth century would also explain a pattern for Fisher's face in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. NPG 2821) which is thought to have been used in a late sixteenth-century painter's workshop and which is based on the present drawing.
