Portrait of Thomas Cromwell is a small oil painting by the German and Swiss artist Hans Holbein the Younger, usually dated to between 1532 and 1534, when Cromwell, an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540, was around 48 years old. It is one of two portraits Holbein painted of him; the other is a tondo from a series of medallions of Tudor courtiers.[2]
The original panel is lost, and today known from three copies: in the Frick Collection in New York (where it is hung opposite Holbein's Portrait of Thomas More); in the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Chichester Constable collection in Yorkshire. The Frick panel is considered superior in quality.[3]
Subject
Portrait of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, c.1585-1596
Thomas Cromwell was a lawyer and statesman who began as a blacksmith's son in Putney, and rose to power as an associate of Cardinal Wolsey. After Wolsey's fall and a period of initial distrust, he became a confidant of Henry VIII, assuming the roles of vicegerent, Lord Chancellor, lord high chamberlain, amongst others.[4] A shrewd politician, he was aware of the effect of propaganda and commissioned Holbein to produce images positioning him as a reformist and royalist, including anti-clerical woodcuts and the title page for Myles Coverdale's English translation of the bible. In this he was both progressive and attuned to Henry VIII's grandiose programme of artistic patronage. The king's efforts to glorify his own status as Supreme Head of the Church culminated in the building of Nonsuch Palace, started in 1538.[5]
Portrait of Sir Thomas More, 1527. Cromwell was instrumental in establishing the English Reformation, and played a key role in More's downfall
Cromwell engineered the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was an early ally of Anne Boleyn but played a key role in her downfall. He was a significant force in the Tudor court until, hoping to strengthen the political alliance with the Protestant cause in Germany, he erred in advising Henry to marry Anne of Cleves.[6] The move was unpopular and afforded his many enemies the chance to bring charges of treason, forcing his eventual arrest and beheading.
This left Holbein in an uncertain position; his guile had allowed him survive the downfalls of More and Anne, but Cromwell's sudden fall badly damaged his reputation.[7][8] Although he managed to retain his position as King's painter, his standing never recovered.
Description
The portrait dates from Holbein's second visit to England, when Cromwell was acting on behalf of Henry VIII and commissioned a series of propagandistic images of favoured courtiers at a time when Cromwell's reputation was at its highest. He had emerged as the "Protestant counterweight to Thomas More in the Privy council",[9] sealed Boleyn's position in bitter circumstance, and became one of the most influential and powerful men in England. At the same time he was cultured and instrumental in promoting Holbein's career.[9] Perhaps because of this, and given the portrait's genesis is steeped in the high and bloody politics of the time, with an unsteady king, we know nothing of Holbein's thoughts on the depiction.
Cromwell is given due respect, but is presented as sour and somewhat stiff. The eyes are narrowly set, he tightly grips the seal. His reputation was poor until revision in the 1960s; today he is seen as a reformer and a highly capable, supreme political operator. Reflecting earlier opinion, it was noted that "of all the portraits that Holbein did at the English court, the portrait of Cromwell has always seemed the least flattering to its subject, the most viciously mocking.[9] Mindful of the protracted, fatal relationship between Cromwell and More, and their placing at the Frick, Henry Clay romantically asked that we "imagine Thomas More, the beautiful saint, and Cromwell, the monster, united in art and history, now facing each other, [through] Holbein and time and chance."[10]
This portrait miniature of Cromwell is derived from the 1532 portrait but shows him more tired and older. A similar miniature, with the Garter collar, survives and is attributed to Holbein by the National Portrait Gallery, but most scholars do not consider it an original Holbein
Compared to Holbein's other portraits of Tudor politicians, Cromwell seems reduced; he is placed low in the frame, deep in the pictorial space, placing a distance and diminishing him from the viewer. The table reaches into the immediate foreground as if reaching into the viewer's personal space.[9] Holbein presents Cromwell as somewhat sour, cold and grim, yet the portrait has been described as "a softened version of the subject". Historian R. B. Merriman described Cromwell as "a short, stoutly built man, with a large face, smooth shaven, with close-cropped hair, and a heavy double chin, with a small and cruel mouth, an extraordinary long upper lip, and a pair of gray eyes set closely together, and moving restlessly under his light eyebrows."[11][12]
The inscription on the border reads "To our trusty and right well, beloved Councillor, Thomas Cromwell, Master of our Jewel House". Cromwell sits on a bench before a table holding a legal document. His left hand has a patterned gold ring with a large green gemstone. He is dressed in sober colours,[13] comprising a black fur lined overcoat, a black hat and a "severe expression".[14] The table is covered with a green cloth. Some of his effects are placed on it, including a quill, a devotional book, scissors and a leather bag.[13]
The devotional book was Cromwell's Book of Hours. He was a devout man and would have been keen to display it in his portrait. Cromwell's copy was discovered in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2023 by researchers at Hever Castle.[15][16] The book was donated to Trinity College by Anne Sadleir (1585– c.1671), the widow of Ralph Sadleir (1579–1661), a descendant of Cromwell's protégé, Sir Ralph Sadleir (1507–1587).[15] The original silver-gilt mounts of its cover were made by Pierre Mangot. It was printed in Paris by Gilles and Germain Hardouyn in 1527, the year when Henry VIII first sought a divorce. Two other significant copies of this edition belonged to Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The Tudor historian Tracy Borman described it as "The most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation – if not more."[15][16]
The version of the portrait held by the Frick Collection in New York is in oil on oak panel and measures 781 by 641 millimetres (30.7in ×25.2in).[1]
Attribution and dating
The painting usually dated as c.1532–4, when Cromwell was Master of the Jewel House.[2] The original portrait probably showed a painted scroll above his head, the text of the Frick version was removed during an early 20th restoration/improvement. The wording seems likely designed to position Cromwell beside the king. It read "To our trusty and right well beloved Councillor, Thomas Cromwell, Master of our Jewel House". the wording exists in a 1915 photograph of the Frick painting, but was removed. That panel underwent extensive technical analysis in 1952, and was cleaned in 1966; work that "did not substantiate an attribution to Holbein", but rather indicated the hand of a less skilled, workshop member.[2]
Provenance
In an undated inventory from Cromwell's London home, an unknown writer mentions "2 tables of my master his (vis)namy painted". Little is known of the original after that. Only hours after Cromwell was taken to Traitors' Gate on 1 June 1540, soldiers arrived at his house to remove his belongings to the treasury, a fate that had befallen More some five years earlier. Holbein's portrait was most likely destroyed or sold soon after Cromwell's fall; there is no record of it in any later royal inventory.[3]
The first mention of copies is in the records of the Countess of Caledon from 1866 when she lent it to National Portrait Exhibition. That version is now in the Frick collection.[3] Art scholar Roy Strong believed that the three extant portraits are copies. They are all in poor condition but the Frick version is the best preserved.[3] Historian John Rowlands deduced from the pentimenti (alteration) revealed by X-ray photographs that the Frick version shows the hand of Holbein and is the original.[17] The art historian Stephanie Buck agrees with the attribution, although it is highly contentious.[18] Strong counters that as a traitor, Cromwell's personal effects were destroyed soon after his execution.
↑ The same source compares Cromwell to Niccolò Machiavelli, mentions criminal "intentions" and supposed "contempt for ordinary morality". See: Smith 1903, p.542
Emmerson, Owen; McCaffrey, Kate (2023). Holbein's Hidden Gem: Rediscovering Thomas Cromwell's Lost Book. Exeter: Jigsaw Design and Publishing for Hever Castle & Gardens. OCLC1382684836.
Erickson, Peter; Hulse, Clark, eds. (2000). Early Modern Visual Culture: Representation, Race, and Empire in Renaissance England: Representation, Race, Empire in Renaissance England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN0-8122-1734-9.
Strong, Roy (1995). The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography. Vol.I: Tudor. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. pp.73–78. ISBN085115400X.
Wilson, Derek (2006). Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man (reviseded.). London: Pimlico. ISBN0714823589.
Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
Anne of Cleves was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of Henry VIII. Little is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of Bar, son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, although their marriage did not proceed.
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.
Thomas Cromwell, briefly Earl of Essex, was an English statesman and lawyer who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount RochfordKGKB, of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. By Henry VIII he was made a knight of the Garter in 1523 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford in 1525 and in 1529 was further ennobled as Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.
Elizabeth Seymour was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.
Lady Margaret Lee was an English courtier. She was a sister of the poet Thomas Wyatt and a friend of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England. Historians have speculated that she may have been present during Boleyn's execution.
In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. He was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, however, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses.
The artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I.
Catherine Howard was Queen of England from July 1540 until November 1541 as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn, and the niece of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court. He secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where Howard caught the King's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. He was 49, and it is widely accepted that she was about 17 at the time of her marriage to Henry VIII.
Portrait of Sir Thomas More is an oak panel painting created in 1527 by the German artist and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger, now in the Frick Collection in New York.
Lady Mary Brandon was an English noblewoman, and the daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his second wife, Anne Browne. Mary was the wife of Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle, by whom she had six children.
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.
Hans of Antwerp was a goldsmith and merchant working in Tudor London. He supplied silver plate and jewels to the court of Henry VIII.
The Schwarzwald family was a wealthy, patrician, merchant family living in the Hanseatic city of Danzig from the 15th to the 18th century. The family, which had its origins in the Black Forest in south-west Germany, can be traced back to Georg von Schwarzwald, who settled in Danzig in the early 1400s.
Portrait of a Lady, probably a Member of the Cromwell Family is an oil on panel portrait completed in around 1535–1540 by Hans Holbein the Younger now at the Toledo Museum of Art. The painting shows an elegantly but demurely dressed young woman sitting against a blue-grey background. The subject of this portrait is thought to be a member of the Cromwell family, perhaps Thomas Cromwell's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Seymour, sister to Jane, third consort of Henry VIII.
Portrait Miniature of Hans Schwarzwaldt is a watercolour on vellum portrait completed in around 1535–1540 by German artist and printmaker, Hans Holbein the Younger. The painting shows a young man against a clear blue background. Only the head and shoulders are shown, turned three-quarters to the viewer's right, the eyes cast down. The light brown hair is close cropped, and the sitter is wearing a brown doublet, trimmed with black, with a small, open falling collar with white strings attached. There is no inscription. The subject of this portrait was identified as a Danzig merchant, Hans Schwarzwaldt (1513-1575), based on a very strong resemblance to another portrait made by Holbein in 1543, but his age does not match the inscription. It has been suggested that the young man might be Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, the son of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex.
Portrait of Johann von Schwarzwaldt is a tempera on parchment portrait completed in 1543 by German artist and printmaker, Hans Holbein the Younger. The painting shows a young man against a blue background, turned three-quarters to the viewer's right. The sitter is wearing a deep black velvet cap and a black silk gown, a shade lighter, with a finely embroidered white shirt showing at the neck and wrist. The eyes are lowered, half covered by the lids, the arms folded. He has two rings on his left hand and is holding leather gloves. There is a flanking inscription at head height —· ANNO · ETATIS // SVÆ · 24 · 1543· — indicating that he was born about 1519. The subject of this portrait was identified as a Danzig merchant, Hans (Johann) von Schwarzwald, but his age does not match the inscription. It has been suggested that the young man might be Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, the son of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex.
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