William Reskimer (?-1552)

Half-length, almost in profile to the left, with both his hands in front of him, against a blue background decorated with the tendrils of a vine. He has a long red beard and dark hair; he is dressed in black and wears a black cap

The sitter is almost certainly one of the sons of John Reskimer of Merthen, and a member of a very old Cornish family. The elder son, John Reskimer, with whom the portrait was traditionally identified, seems to have been engaged in local activities in Cornwall at the time the portrait was painted. However, his younger brother, William, was Page of the Chamber in 1532 and was thereafter almost continuously at Henry VIII’s court, becoming a Gentleman-Usher in 1546.

The portrait was probably painted c.1532-33, early in Holbein’s second English period. The preliminary drawing at Windsor in inscribed: Reskemeer a Cornish Gent; and the painting follows it very closely.