Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, in a black doublet and cartwheel ruff; and Portrait of a noblewoman, bust-length, in a black jewelled brocade gown and figure-of-eight ruff

In The English Icon (1969), Sir Roy Strong identified the artist John Bettes the Younger through a portrait of an unknown woman that bore the monogram ‘I.B.’. It is from this foundation that the oeuvre of the artist has subsequently been constructed. Recorded as a ‘picture maker’ living on London’s Grub Street in 1599, the majority of works associated with the painter depict wealthy, fashionably attired women, and date from the last quarter of the 16th century. These portraits show sitters dressed at the height of fashion in 1585, as dated on the panels, with large, exaggerated ruffs that featured frequently in other works by the Bettes group.