A portrait drawing of Nicholas Bourbon (c.1503-1549/50), a French poet at the court of Henry VIII. A bust length portrait in profile to the left. He holds a pen in his right hand. A woodcut of 1535 is based on this drawing, and shows the figure in reverse. Inscribed in an eighteenth-century hand at upper left: Nicholas Borbonius Poeta. The French poet Nicholas Bourbon was drawn by Holbein in the typical pose of a scholar, caught in the act of writing. Bourbon came to England in 1535 and became part of a circle of foreigners at Henry VIII's court which included Holbein and the astronomer Nicholas Kratzer. Bourbon praised Holbein's work as exceeding that of Apelles, the legendary Greek painter.