Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton

This anonymous portait was painted in the early 1590s when the sitter was between the ages of 17 and 20. This young man may well be the model for the one in Shakespeare's Sonnets. He no doubt also provides a possible precedent for all the other erratic young men in Shakespeare's plays, such as Bertram in All's Well. Courtesy of the Yorck Project.