FDA-P.64-2010

Object number

FDA-P.64-2010

Object type

painting

Title

Sir Henry Wotton

Title Type

assigned by cataloguer

Description

Three-quarter length portrait of a seated man, leaning on a table

Comments

'This ancient [dining] room on the first floor [of the Provost's Lodge] was built by Provost Lupton in 1518, but floored and panelled under Sir Henry Wotton in 1605... As we enter, three stately portraits face us... Sir Henry Wotton, the poet, the former ambassador, whom Milton visited, is leaning on his elbow, with ruddy beard, and blue eyes looking enquiringly out of the picture, with his motto "Philosophemur," - "let us philosophise" - painted on the canvas. He was the practised diplomatist who could consistently write in later life the beautiful aspiration placed among the lyrics of the "Golden Treasury" - culminating in the wish to be - "Lord of himself, but not of lands."'

[Source: Blanche Warre Cornish, 'Prints and Prints at Eton College', The Pall Mall Magazine, August 1900, p.503-504]

Content (person)

Wotton, Henry, 1568 - 1639 (Sitter)

Content (note)

Three-quarter- length, seated leaning on a table, in a black coat and hose and a white collar, with inscription

Dimensions

height (sight size): 1285mm
width (sight size): 1110mm
height (frame): 1484mm
width (frame): 1307mm
depth (frame): 48mm

Inscription

Inscribed, centre right: "PHILOSOPHEMUR"

I.D. label on frame, with lettering: '15th Provost, 1624-1639'

Materials & techniques note

Oil on canvas

Physical description

Carved gilt frame

Style

British School 17th Century

Date

c.1640

Object history note

Exhibited: Manchester Art Treasures, 1857, catalogue number 103; National Portrait exhibition, South Kensington, 1866, catalogue number 14; 'Eton Loan Collection', Eton College, 1891, catalogue number 44