File:Man in a Black Cap, by John Bettes the Elder.jpg

Art historians regard Bettes's Man in a Black Cap as a significant work. Its technique is reminiscent of Hans Holbein the Younger's, suggesting that Bettes may have worked with Holbein as part of his workshop.^[1] Nothing, however, is known of Holbein's workshop other than paintings associated with it. Holbein does not appear to have founded a school, and Bettes is the only artist whose work reveals his technical influence. For example, he paints over a pink priming, as did Holbein. According to art historian Roy Strong, "He is the artist who, on grounds of style, has the best claim to have worked under Holbein".^[2] On the other hand, Bettes's style is distinct from Holbein's; he paints fur more loosely and the beard more flatly than the German artist.^[3] In the view of art historian Susan Foister, on the evidence of this portrait, Bettes is "unlikely to have assisted" Holbein.^[3]

The recording of an artist's name on a painting is rare in this period. The addition of Bettes' nationality suggests that Man in a Black Cap may have been painted abroad.^[4] Since the work's creation, the blue smalt pigment of the background has turned brown; the painting has also been cut down along the sides and bottom, with the inscription reaffixed to the back.^[1] It has been speculated that the portrait may be of Edmund Butts, the brother of the William Butts whom Bettes painted. Both were sons of William Butts, a court physician whose portrait was painted by Holbein in 1543.^[1]

References

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Karen Hearn, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530–1630, London: Tate Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1854371576, 46–47.
2. ↑ Roy Strong, The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture, London: Paul Mellon Foundation, 1969, 65–67.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Susan Foister, Holbein in England, London: Tate, 2006, ISBN 1854376454, 116.
4. ↑ Ellis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain: 1530–1790, London: Penguin, 1978, ISBN 0140561013, 23.