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1 of 253523 objects
Sir Thomas Wyatt (c.1503-1542) c.1532-7?
Black and coloured chalks with ink and watercolour on pink prepared paper | 37.2 x 26.9 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 912250
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A portrait drawing of Sir Thomas Wyatt (c.1503-1542) on pink prepared paper. He is shown bust-length, turned to the right, but turning his head to look to the left.The drawing is largely in black and coloured chalk with the facial features worked up in ink and watercolour.
An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a mid-sixteenth-century original) at top left identifies the sitter as 'Tho: Wiatt Knight.'
Thomas Wyatt was a poet and ambassador, who represented Henry VIII's interests in Italy, France and Spain. He brought new literary conventions into English, among them the sonnet. His peripatetic lifestyle means there were few opportunities when he could have sat to Holbein and this drawing was probably made between the artist's return to England in 1532 and Wyatt's departure for embassy in spring 1537. The Wyatt family were significant patrons of Holbein, who also painted THomas's father Henry and his sister Margaret Lee. A close copy of this drawing is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 912251).Provenance
Henry VIII; Edward VI, 1547; Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel; by whom bequeathed to John, Lord Lumley, 1580; by whom probably bequeathed to Henry, Prince of Wales, 1609, and thus inherited by Prince Charles (later Charles I), 1612; by whom exchanged with Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, 1627/8; by whom given to Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel; acquired by Charles II by 1675
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Black and coloured chalks with ink and watercolour on pink prepared paper
Measurements
37.2 x 26.9 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 12250