Surprisingly, this sheet is Gossaert's only known drawn portrait, though he must have made sketches after life for his numerous painted portraits. Perhaps executed in chalk, they may have looked rather unfinished to later collectors, who failed to appreciate them as works of art in their own right. The survival of this example might be due to its meticulous execution, it was to be reproduced as a print, and Gossaert clearly wanted to offer the engraver as precise a model as possible. The print was probably made as "propaganda" for the sitter, Christian II, king of Denmark, who had to flee his country after he was deposed in 1523. The prominent place of the coats of arms in Gossaert's composition, which seems to have been based on that of a woodcut portrait of Christian by Lucas Cranach the Elder, clearly state the king's claim on his lost kingdom. Gossaert also made a design of the tomb of Christian's wife and a portrait of their three children. (http://www.metmuseum.org)