Holbein's pen-and-ink drawing returns Thomas More to London

"Holbein’s drawing of Sir Thomas More and his family receives its first public display in London since the late 1520s this week. The pen-and-ink image, which dates from about 1526, is a study for the lost life-size group portrait of the Chancellor, who was beheaded for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

It will be displayed at Tate Britain as part of an exhibition on Hans Holbein the Younger, the King’s court painter, that runs until January 7 next year. Holbein in England, the largest gathering of his works for more than half a century, opens on Thursday.

A reference to the drawing appears in a letter of 1529 from Erasmus, the Humanist scholar, to More. In an age when such drawings were the equivalent of photographs, Erasmus commented on how well the More family looked..."

The Times Online

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