A portrait drawing of John More (1509-1547). He is shown half length and facing three-quarters to the right. He is wearing a striped jacket and hat, and is reading a book that he holds in his hands. The drawing is in black and coloured chalks, which have been wetted to create the flesh tone of the face.

The drawing is inscribed lipfarb brun (lip colour brown) at the top right in Holbein's hand. An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a mid-sixteenth-century original) at top left identifies the sitter as 'Iohn More Sr Thomas Mores Son.'

This is one of a group of studies made by Holbein shortly after his arrival in England for a large group portrait of Sir Thomas More and his family. The finished painting was destroyed by fire in 1752, but a sketch for the composition survives in Basel and individual studies for seven of the sitters are in the Royal Collection. An early copy of the finished work by Rowland Lockey at Nostell Priory in West Yorkshire may record the appearance of the final painting. 

John More was, as the inscription states, the son of Sir Thomas More and Jane Colt. Shortly after this work was made he would marry his father's ward, Anne Cresacre, who is also the subject of a study by Holbein in the Royal Collection (RCIN 912270).