Of all our pictures I suppose the one which attracts most attention is that of Henry VIII which hangs over the dais at the north end of the hall: it was given us by Robert Beaumont, who held the mastership from 1561 to 1567. The artist was Hans Eworth, a Dutchman who lived in London circ. 1543-75, and worked with or under the influence of Antonio Moro: the portrait was taken from or founded on that of the king in the fresco painted by Holbein in 1537 on a wall of the privy chamber in Whitehall palace. This fresco, which was destroyed in the fire of 1698 and till then deservedly treated as one of the art treasures of London, contained portraits of Henry VII and Henry VIII with their queens, Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour. Holbein's studies for the heads of the two kings have been preserved, and are at Chatsworth and Munich. Most of the extant portraits of Henry VIII are copied from or founded on this fresco. Signs of deterioration in the fresco were noticeable in the reign of Charles II, and by his orders it was copied by Remée, a French painter then resident in London. The original fresco was on each side of and above a fireplace or window. Instead of depicting this, the artist represented this space as occupied by a pedestal containing an inscription: his delineation of the faces of the sovereigns is poor, but he has preserved Holbein's general design. Two copies of the reproduction are extant, one of which is in the royal collection and the other at Petworth. Hardly less notable than the presentation of our founder, and far more valuable, is the charming portrait by Joshua Reynolds of the duke of Gloucester (1776-1834) as a boy: the duke was a cousin of George III and afterwards chancellor of the University. Reynolds wrote in his diary that the boy sat for his portrait in March 1780 when he was four years old, and that the finished picture was delivered in January 1788--the charge for it being a hundred guineas. Horace Walpole praised it, but thought it "washy," an opinion not shared by modern critics who esteem it one of Reynolds's masterpieces. The picture was left to the College in 1843 by the will of the duke's sister, the Princess Sophia, with a request that it should be hung in the hall. The legacy was due to the good offices of a freshman of the time--the Hon. Douglas Gordon, son of George, fourth earl of Aberdeen. He described the circumstances attending the gift as follows: