Sir Thomas More and Family

Sir Thomas More and Family is a lost painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted circa 1527 and known from a number of surviving copies.

The original was destroyed in 1752 in a fire at Schloss Kremsier (Kroměříž Castle), the Moravian residence of Carl von Liechtenstein, archbishop of Olmutz.

A study by Holbein for the painting survives in the Kunstmuseum Basel (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kupferstichkabinett Inv. 1662.31). The work is also preserved in a number of sixteenth-century versions by Rowland Lockey, including those in Nostell Priory and the National Portrait Gallery (formerly part of the Lenthall pictures).

Strong calls it "arguably the greatest and most innovative work of his English period" and "the earliest portrait conversation piece in English painting, at least a century ahead of its time" and asserts that "its destruction means we lost the greatest single visual artefact to epitomize the aims and ideals of the early Renaissance in England."

Sir Thomas More and Family in the National Portrait Gallery is a painting that was once part of the Lenthall pictures.

Sir Thomas More and Family is one of two near life-size copies by Rowland Lockey of an original by Holbein that was lost in a fire in the 18th century. It is dated 1593; Holbein died in 1554. It is oil on canvas and measures 89.5 inches (227 cm) by 120 inches (300 cm). It was probably commissioned by More's grandson, Thomas More II, to commemorate five generations of the family. The National Portrait Gallery lists the sitters as:

The copy from the Lenthall collection has been described as “the most accomplished extant version”.

The surviving drawing by Holbein confirms the general accuracy of picture.

The painting had been at Gubbins in Hertfordshire. At some time it came into the possession of the Lenthall family, but how this happened is not known, although it may have been borrowed from the More family and never returned. In the 17th century, John Aubrey viewed it at the Besselsleigh home of Sir John Lenthall, but by 1727 it was at Burford Priory. It was discussed in detail by John Loveday who saw it in 1736. The painting was unsold in a small sale of the Lenthall pictures in 1808 but was offered again and sold in a major sale in 1833. It was subsequently owned by Walter Strickland, CW Dormer, Sir Hugh Lane, Viscount Lee, and EJ Horniman whose widow bequeathed it to the National Portrait Gallery where it remains. It was the centre piece in the exhibition, The King's Good Servant, at the National Portrait Gallery in 1977.

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Wikipedia