Portrait of a gentleman, standing three-quarter-length, in a black doublet with white lace collar and cuffs, his right hand on a globe pointing at Greenland

The sitter has been traditionally and incorrrectly identified as Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618). The costume dates the portrait to c.1610-20, too late for a portrait of Raleigh, the sitter here a younger man. The right hand points to 'Greene Land' and the sea to the west is inscribed 'freti Davis' [Davis Straits, between west Greenland and the east coast of Baffin Island] and 'mare congelatum' [the frozen sea], suggesting the sitter is to be identified with this region. The Straits were discovered by [and named for] John Davis (1550-1605), 'foremost of the navigators of the great Queen', on his third voyage of 1587, when he reached "Hope Sanderson", named after his patron William Sanderson, in latitude 72°41'North on the coast of Greenland, beyond which he anticipated that a successful fourth Arctic voyage might be made, which he never set sail. Later navigators profited from Davis's Arctic discoveries, which were clearly set out on two maps and on the great Molyneux globes, which still survive.