Figure Studies after ®The Amassadors of England¯

This 1875 figure study by Eilif Peterssen after 'The Ambassadors of England' — possibly referring to Holbein's famous double portrait, or another diplomatic subject — represents a specific type of preparatory work in which historical painters studied and adapted poses and figure types from canonical earlier paintings for use in their own historical compositions. Peterssen's engagement with Northern Renaissance portraiture as a source for his own Norwegian historical scenes demonstrates the complex intertextual relationship between 19th-century history painting and the Old Master tradition it both revered and transformed.

The figure study shows Peterssen analyzing the poses, costumes, and characterization strategies of his Renaissance source material, extracting figure types and compositional approaches that could be adapted for 19th-century historical narrative painting.