Portrait of Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (1467-1533), half-length, holding an apple

Details

English School, probably 17th Century
Portrait of Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (1467-1533), half-length, holding an apple
oil on panel
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.9 cm.)

Provenance

The Hon. Henry Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Keythorpe Hall, Leicestershire, by 1866 and by descent.

Literature

K. Hearn et al., Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530-1630, London, 1995, p. 40.

Exhibited

London, The South Kensington Museum, The First Special Exhibition of National Portraits ending with the Reign of King James the Second, April 1866, no. 655, as 'Hans Holbein'.

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Celia Harvey

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Lot Essay

Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Lord Berners, served Henry VIII as Lieutenant of Calais and Chancellor of the Exchequer. The present portrait is after the prototype by an unknown Flemish artist held in the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 4953), likely executed during Berners’ tenure in Calais. A keen historian, Berners translated seminal works such as Froissart’s Chronicles and the Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius into English. It is possible that the apple in his hand is intended to symbolise the wealth of his knowledge.

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