Sir William Butts

Sir William Butts worked for Henry VIII as a physician and was painted by Hans Holbein the Younger on several occassions.

This particular portrait is believed to have been produced in around 1543, just a year before he was knighted. Other portraits completed by Holbein included him alongside his wife (Margaret Bacon, Lady Butts) and also as part of a larger group of surgeons. The softness and understated beauty of Holbein's portraits proved particularly palatable to King Henry VIII's court as well as some of the figures connected to it.

Sadly, the subject would pass away just a few years after this painting was completed. The painting itself is typical of Holbein's work, with subtle facial expressions and a desire to leave most of the painting fairly simple and concentrate on a technically solid depiction. His style was heavily influenced from artists from the Netherlandish regions.

This painting can be found amongst the huge permanent collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. There is an impressively broad and substantial set of art to be found here, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles and other antiquities. There are around 7,500 items in total and some of the painters to look out for include Edgar Degas, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Hentri Matisse, Sandro Botticelli and Edouard Manet.