A portrait drawing of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/17-47) on pink prepared paper. He is shown bust length, facing to the front, wearing a hat with a feather. The basis of the drawing is black chalk, which has been used to define the outlines, convey the texture of the sitter's black velvet hat and feather, and to darken and define the individual strands of his hair. An earlier drawing of the earl (RCIN 912216) seems to have been abandoned at any early stage in favour of the present sheet.

An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a mid-sixteenth-century original) at top left identifies the sitter as 'Thomas Earl of Surry'. 'Thomas' is a mistake, either in the eighteenth-century transcription or the sixteenth-century original, for 'Henry', since the sitter is clearly Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and heir to the dukedom of Norfolk.

The portrait was probably commissioned as a pair with that of the sitter's wife, Frances, Countess of Surrey (RCIN 912214). The drawings of husband and wife probably date from 1535-6, whenthe couple were in their late teens. 

Henry Howard was the oldest son and heir of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. He was educated alongside Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII's illegitimate son. A soldier and poet, Surrey dedicated verses to Thomas Wyatt, among others. In 1546, partly on the testimony of Richard Southwell, Surrey and his father were arrested on plotting to take control of the country while the king was ill at Windsor. Henry Howard was executed on 19 January 1547.