John Michael Wright (1617-1694)

Details

John Michael Wright (1617-1694)

Portrait of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (1628-1683/4), three-quarter-length, in Greenwich tilting armour with a red sash, at a parapet, with a plumed helmet, a page with his horse beyond, in a landscape

52¾ x 41¾in. (134 x 106cm.)

Literature

Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790, 1978, p. 108
Guy Wilson, Greenwich Armour in the Portraits of John Michael Wright, the Connoisseur, February 1975, pp. 111-114, illus.

Exhibited

Edinburgh, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, John Michael Wright the Kings Painter, 16 July - 19 Sept 1982, p. 70, no. 15

Lot Essay

This is perhaps the best of a number of autograph versions of the composition. The identity of the sitter has been the subject of some confusion having been variously described as Edmund Brudenell, Sir Philip Stapleton, Thomas, 2nd Lord Arundell of Wardour and Thomas, 4th Lord Arundell of Wardour. However it now seems most likely to be Henry, 6th Duke of Norfolk on the basis of a comparison with a portrait of him by Hanneman (dated 1660) at Arundel Castle.

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