Master John is a mysterious figure.  

He was active between 1544 to 1545. The 1540s were a crossroads for British art. German artist Hans Holbein, court favorite of Henry VIII, had recently died leaving an opening in the portrait market. Native artists were only just starting to rise to prominence. Like Holbein, the vast majority of British-active artists at the time were foreign-born.

Master John was unique in that he appears to have been native to Britain. His obsessive attention to costume detail, gold and silver leafing, and technique of painting in isolated parts rather than a cohesive whole are hallmarks of English art at the time.  

We have his name from a reference to a painting of Princess Mary (later Queen “Bloody” Mary), purchased for 5 pounds from “one John that drew her grace in a table.” Table back then was a term for a wooden panel. A portrait of Henry VIII’s final wife, Catherine Parr, is also attributed to him. These tantalizing details leave us wanting more, but the English nobility must have thought much of Master John to have so favored him at court.