In Search of Holbein's Thomas Wyatt the Younger: Holbein's Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger--Who was Beheaded for Treason in 1554--was Thought to be Known Only from Copies. Roy Strong Reveals That This Innovatory Masterpiece Survives‪.‬

In 1974 a portrait of the traitor Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger was sold anonymously at Christie's (Figs. 1-3). It was heavily overpainted and, at some date, had been re-identified and labelled 'Henry 6'. The panel is a version of a portrait I had researched in the 1960s, when compiling the catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery's Tudor and early Stuart portraits. (1) The appearance of the painting at Christie's prompted at the time the bringing together of the three surviving good versions of the portrait in the conservation department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, of which I was then director. I did not publish the conclusions reached, largely because there were gaps in the history of the various Wyatt portraits that had descended within the family itself. Those I am now able to resolve. At the time, however, I saw nothing that impeded my view that the Christie's painting, now owned by Christopher Gibbs, is by Holbein, and the others early copies. The Holbein portrait closest in composition is the tondo of Simon George in the Stadelsches Kunstinstut, Frankfurt (Fig. 4). The two paintings have recently been examined side-by-side by German scholars of the painter. (2) Their conclusions reinforce my view that the Gibbs portrait is one of Holbein's last works, and prompted the present article. In order to understand how such a picture could suddenly emerge from nowhere we need first to reconnoitre back in time and consider the fate of the Wyatt family portraits.