This is one of the five earliest paintings surviving in the Royal Collection. The others depict Henry V (403443), Henry VI (403442), Richard III (403436) and Elizabeth Woodville (406785). Recent dendrochronological (tree-ring) analysis indicates that this panel was painted between 1524 and 1556, which is later than the Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III panels. It was possibly made in order to join this set of royal portraits and is listed with them in the 1542 inventory of the contents of Whitehall Palace.

This work is slightly different in format from the other portraits in the set. Painted on a wider panel, it has a striped background which probably indicates that it was made in a different artist’s workshop. The Yorkist king is shown in head and shoulders view wearing a black cap and a richly brocaded gown. He holds a ring in his hands, which probably has royal significance.

The artist is unidentified but would probably have been either British or Flemish, working at the Tudor court. Originally the painting would have been in a gilded, engaged frame which has been dismantled at some point in the painting’s history. It is now displayed in a twentieth-century reproduction Tudor frame.