Hans Eworth – Portrait of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1538-1578). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £3,212,000
One of the most significant Tudor portraits remaining in private hands is at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th century paintings evening auction in London on December 3. Painted in 1562 by Hans Eworth, the leading English painter after Hans Holbein, it depicts Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, one of the most powerful noblemen at the court of Elizabeth I. A second cousin to the Queen and heir to one of England’s greatest dynasties, he was the son of Henry Howard, the ‘Poet Earl of Surrey’, and the grandson of the formidable 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Yet even his towering status could not shield him from political peril: he fell from favour and was executed for treason in 1572 – just ten years after this portrait was painted – following a conspiracy to replace Elizabeth I with Mary, Queen of Scots.
Born in Antwerp and active in London from the 1540s, Hans Eworth emerged as England’s leading portraitist in the years following Holbein’s death.
