Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), three-quarter-length, in a white ruff, gorget and slashed doublet,

The present work appears to have been partly based on a portrait of Elizabethan poet, courtier and diplomat, Sir Philip Sidney (London, National Portrait Gallery, inv. no. NPG 5732), with some differences in appearance, including a fuller ruff, longer hair, and the addition of a beard and moustache. Sidney was known to have dark eyes, as seen in the National Portrait Gallery likeness, whereas here the sitter has brighter and cooler irises. The dimensions also differ, and the present work’s larger size and proportions suggest that it may have been cut down from a full-length.

The sitter wears a prominent ring with a partly-legible coat of arms. It is possible that it bears the arms of the Knollys family, related to the Sidneys by marriage.