This nicely preserved and sizeable panel painting is typical of English work at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
The sitter’s identity can be arrived at by the coat of arms depicted in the painting.These arms are the arms of the Thoresby family of Yorkshire.They are correctly described thus : ‘blazoned Argent a Chevron between three Lions rampant Sable’ and the crest is ‘Upon a helm with a Wreath Argent and Sable a Lion rampant Sable holding Battle Axe Or’.Perhaps the most famous member of that family was the antiquary Ralph Thoresby (1628-1725).He was a merchant in Leeds, who amongst other things wrote the first History of Leeds in 1715.
Looking through the members of that family for a male of appropriate age and date for our picture, there appears to be no really plausible candidate other than Henry Thoresby (d.1615).Henry was from that Yorkshire family, but came to London to develop a successful career as a lawyer.
To understand Henry Thoresby’s career, we can do no better than quote from John Strype’sA Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (1720). Here we learn that there was a carved monument to Henry Thoresby and his family put up on the walls of Hackney Church in the 17th century sometime after his death.The monument has not survived, but Strype’s book reproduces a watercolour image of it and quotes the lettering beneath.It reads thus :
In the Chancel, over the Vestry Door, a Monument against the Wall, with the Effigies of a Man and Woman, and this Inscription:
Hereunder lyeth the Body of Henry Thoresby of Thoresby in the County of York, Esquire, late Counsellor in the Law, Bencher, and Reader of Lincoln's-Inn, Justice of Peace, and of the Quorum; one of the Masters of the most honourable Court of Chancery, and one of the sixteen Governours of King James's Hospital, elected at the first Foundation thereof by John Sutton, Esquire, the only Founder. Which Henry Thoresby passed his Pilgrimage in this Life in all Godliness and Christian Piety, and so constantly did continue unto his last Breath, which he yielded up to the Almighty in this Town of Hackney, on the eleventh day of May, 1615.
And under the woman thus :
Hereunder lyeth the Body of Jane, late Wife of the said Henry Thoresby, Esquire, Daughter to John Palmer of Clarkenwell in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and Paulina his Wife, Daughter of Anthony Sandes * of Throwly in the County of Kent, Esquire: Which Jane lived with the said Henry in Wedlock 30 Years and more, and had Issue by him two Daughters, viz. Jane, who died in her Infancy about six Years of Age, and Eleonor Lady Hardres, the now Wife of Sir Thomas Hardres of Great Hardres in the County of Kent, Knight: By whom she had Issue four Sons and one Daughter. Which said Jane overlived her said Husband Henry Thoresby, and died in all Christian Piety on the 18th Day of August 1616.
All of this fits the image we have in our picture.Our picture must stylistically date from close to 1600.Henry Thoresby died having been married ‘30 years and more’ in 1615.If we assume 30 years of marriage would put him around 60 at his death, then this picture painted some 15 years earlier would have him at 45 years of age.Perfectly plausible.Further, his demeanour and apparel are entirely consistent with those of a lawyer at the time.Additionally the quality of the painting suggests a hand sophisticated enough to have been working in the capital.It is certainly not a provincial hand.Henry Thoresby is the only member of that family who is known to have been a prominent figure in London at that date.
Ascribing even good pictures like this present one to a specific artist at this date is difficult. Thoresby would have been painted in London, but even there records of painters and their sitters are hard to come by.And the element of collaboration and studio assistance must never be discounted.But there is an unadorned straightforwardness about this painting which certainly leads us towards an English hand rather than an Anglo-Dutch or Anglo-Flemish hand.Of these English (or anglicized) painters Robert Peake – rather than De Critz, Van Somer or Gheeraerts – seems the most likely.Comparison with his Portrait of a Man, 1593 in the Paul Mellon Center for British Art, Yale is instructive.
We are grateful to Thomas Woodcock - lately the Chester Herald, now retired - for his help (private correspondence 2024) in identifying the sitter for this entry.