18th Century Portrait of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Oil on canvas; held in gilded period frame.

Dimensions refer to outer framed size.

Provenance: Capt. Edward G. Spencer-Churchill (1876-1964), Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, England, sold by his executors - Christies Important English Pictures 25^th June 1965, lot 18; thence by descent

Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He opposed the Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed. Canonised in 1935 as a martyr, Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.

The portrait is a version of the famous image of More painted by Holbein in 1527 and now in the Frick Collection in New York. Spencer-Churchill, cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, inherited and augmented a collection of Old Master pictures at his house Northwick Park. This painting was no.168 in his collection and was sold after his death when the house was cleared.