A portrait drawing of John Poyntz (c.1485-1544) on pink prepared paper. He is shown bust length with his body in profile and his head facing three-quarters to the right, looking sharply upwards. The drawing is largely in black and coloured chalks with black ink used to refine the profile. 

An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a mid-sixteenth-century original) at top left identifies the sitter as 'Iohn Poines.'

John Poyntz held minor positions at court. He was a friend of Thomas Wyatt, whose poem 'To mine own John Poyntz' describes Wyatt's life in exile from court. Poyntz was related to Sir Henry Guildford (RCIN 400046) whose will he witnessed in 1532. The reason for Poyntz's unusual pose is not clear, although it has been proposed that a finished portrit may have shown him looking upwards towards a religious figure (see Jane Roberts, Holbein and the Court of Henry VIII, 1993, no. 23). No painting by Holbein after this drawing survives, although a copy suggests Holbein discarded the cloak thrown over the sitter's shoulder and painted him as if leaning on a parapet, somewhat like Derich Born (RCIN 405681).