Portrait of Sir Thomas More

This portrait of Sir Thomas More was painted after the only known surviving image of this pivotal figure in British history. The original portrait, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 – 1543), currently resides in New York as part of The Frick Collection. 

Portraits such as this would be commissioned either by those that had some particular connection to the sitter or by one who wished to furnish his house with the images of great men and allude to a place for his achievements among theirs.

In ours the artist has captured the intensity of More’s gaze out to the right and the most minute detail of his hair poking out from beneath his hat. The outstanding feature of this painting is undoubtedly the fur collar of More’s cloak, which has been painted in such a magnificent way that the texture of the fur is almost tangible. 

Holbein painted the original portrait shortly after his arrival in England in late 1526, where he stayed with More on the recommendation of their mutual friend, Erasmus. The portrait was painted at a pivotal moment in More’s political career-  shortly after its completion More was made Lord Chancellor in 1529.

It is, therefore, one of the most important and iconic portraits of the Tudor era, and it is no wonder that our artist felt compelled to create his own study of it, paying particular attention to More’s distinct facial features.

Sir Thomas More
Born in London on 7th February 1478, Thomas More was the eldest son of John More, a lawyer who was later knighted and made a Judge of the King’s Bench. Following in his father’s footsteps, More studied law, passing the bar in 1501. A devout Catholic, he spent four years in a Carthusian monastery whilst he studied, eventually deciding he would best serve God as a lay Christian. More’s political career began in 1517, following his role in quashing an uprising of London apprentices in May of that year. He became a member of the King’s Council and was known as Master of Requests.

More quickly rose through the ranks to become Lord Chancellor. However, More resigned from this post after three years in opposition to Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragorn. He subsequently refused to acknowledge the Act of Supremacy that placed the King as the head of the Church of England, and was resultantly convicted of high treason and sentenced to death. Originally condemned to a traitor’s death - to be hanged, drawn and quartered - Henry VIII granted More a small mercy by changing his sentence to a beheading, which took place on the 6th of July 1535.

As More’s objection to the Act of Supremacy and Henry VIII’s repeated divorces had been a result of his Catholic faith, the Vatican beatified More in 1886, defining him as a martyr. In 1935, on the four-hundredth anniversary of his death, More was canonised and was later defined as the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.