An elderly man stands facing half-right, his right foot placed slightly in front of his left, wearing a short cloak which covers his left shoulder and arm. It is tied with a string on the right shoulder leaving the right arm bare. It reaches barely to the thighs and is made of narrow strips of light brown fur, with hem and neckband probably of reversed skin. His right hand is raised and points downwards with the index finger. There is a suggestion of veins (or body painting (?) on the right forearm. His hair is shaved close at the sides leaving a stiff roach from the forehead to the nape of the neck and also a fringe projecting from his forehead. A few wisps of facial hair can be seen on his chin and upper lip. Some of the wrinkles on the face would appear to have been emphasized with red paint. He is wearing an ornament consisting of a strip of skin threaded through the lobe of the ear, tied below the ear and marked at each end with a grey streak, probably representing a bone or shell bead.
Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the top, "One of their Religious men. "
John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings. During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.
