Portrait of Lord Abergavenny

Holbein the Younger, Hans

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger. It is a portrait of a man turned and looking towards the right. The details of his clothing are only roughly drawn in but there is a suggestion of a thick fur collar. He has a flat hat on his head. His expression is stern. The inscription in the lower left corner reads 'LORD CROMWELL'. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 28 HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER (b. 1497; d. 1543) PORTRAIT OF GEORGE NEVILL, THIRD LORD ABERGAVENNY Collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, at Wilton House. 27.5 x 24 cm. (10 3/4 x 9 1/2 in.). The drawing is in black and red chalk on paper tinted pink. The fur is a sandy brown; yellow watercolour is used on the jewel in the cap above the ear. The eyes are touched with white. The outline of the cheek, mouth, nose and upper eyelids is drawn in ink, with so much intelligence and delicacy that the re-touch can only be attributed to Holbein himself. The circumstances under which the drawing was available precluded any possibility of reproducing it in colours. The old identification of the sitter as 'Lord Cromwell' is without authority. It was definitely established at the Exhibition of Early English Portraiture in 1909 that the portrait is that of Lord Abergavenny. A miniature inscribed 'G. ABERGAVENY', founded on this drawing, was included in the same exhibition (Case C, No. 22), and the authors of the Catalogue refer to a panel picture, dated 1524, in the possession of a former Earl of Pembroke, to whom it was presented by Charles I in exchange for Raphael's picture of St. George, now in the Louvre. Lord Pembroke gave the drawings to the Earl of Arundel, but this one portrait appears to have been detached, and to have remained ever since at Wilton. C. D."