Guillaume Scrots

Flemish painter, active in England. In 1537 he was appointed court painter to Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, but no work done for her has yet been identified. By autumn 1545 he had arrived in England to enter the service of Henry VIII as King's Painter, at the extraordinarily high salary of £62 10s a year - about twice what his predecessor Hans Holbein the Younger had received. Scrots, whose work reflected the grand formality of Habsburg portraiture, went on to produce highly fashionable portraits at the English court. Following Henry VIII's s death in 1547, Scrots was retained as court painter to Henry's son and successor, Edward VI.

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