Hitherto the identity of the sitter has remained a mystery but he can now be identified as Isaac Honywood, son of Robert Honywood of Henewood, Postling, Kent and Mary Atwaters (Waters). This portrait was made shortly before his death at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, where he served under Sir Francis Vere (1560/61–1609) and Horatio Vere. It is of the same format as the portrait of Charles Scott (RN36), and both can be attributed confidently on stylistic grounds to the Antwerp-trained painter Daniël van den Queborn. Although an obscure figure in the history of art, Queborn served as the de facto painter to the House of Orange and was responsible for a series of elaborate full-length portraits of English sitters who, like Scott and Honywood, were fighting in the Protestant cause alongside their Dutch counterparts against the Spanish. The names of the sitters, which are painted in the upper left of their respective portraits, have eccentric spellings which suggest Queborn was unfamiliar with English names. It also hints at the possibility these were made for a Dutch patron and later gifted to Horace Vere.

Honywood and Scott were relatives. The two families had married twice: Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Honeywood of Sene, Newington, was the wife of Thomas Scott (c.1563–1610) of Scot’s Hall, Smeeth, Kent, and Katherine, daughter of John Honywood of Elmsted, Kent, was the second wife of Sir Edward Scott of Scot’s Hall. A number of portraits of the Scott family by Queborn remained at Scot’s Hall until the late nineteenth century, some of which are now in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

These two portraits may have been part of a larger group of portraits of soldiers who fought under the command of the Veres, which may have served as the prototype for the larger set of full-length portraits assembled about fifteen years later, which were also painted in the Netherlands. Neither this nor the portrait of Charles Scott (RN36) appear in earlier inventories of the pictures at Raynham and they may have been in storage for centuries before being put on display for the first time following the loss of many paintings at the Heirloom sale in 1904.