Sir Brian Tuke

c. 1527/1528 or c. 1532/1534

Hans Holbein the Younger

Artist, German, 1497/1498 - 1543

Shown from the waist up, a cleanshaven man with pale, peachy skin, wearing a black cap and a voluminous fur-lined, black cloak, is positioned behind a crimson-red ledge or tabletop in this vertical portrait painting. His head and torso nearly fills the composition. His body is angled to our left, and he looks off in that direction with dark brown eyes under faint eyebrows. His high cheeks are lightly flushed, and he has a pointed nose and a hint of a five o-clock shadow. His soft black cap has flaps that cover his ears. The wide, fur lapels of his black cloak nearly reach his shoulders. The sleeves of the garment beneath has a tan and black checked pattern, and a white undershirt peeks out at his neck and cuffs. A cross hanging from a heavy gold chain has black pearls in the cross of each arm and a teardrop-shaped black pearl hangs from the bottom. The cross has a hand on each short arm, two feet on the long leg, and a red circle at the center. The sitter’s left hand, on our right, rests on the red ledge holding a pair of gloves that are ivory white around the wrist and charcoal gray at the fingers. His right hand, father from us, rests in a loose fist near his other wrist. A folded piece of white paper with black writing lies to our left of the hands. It reads, “NVNQVID NON PAVCITAS DIERVM MEORVM FINIETVR BREVIS.” The background behind the man is mottled with rust brown and steel gray. Gold writing spans the background to either side of the man’s head, reading, “BRIANVS TVKS, MILES, ANO ETATIS EVAE LVII” along the top and “DROIT ET AVANT” below.

Media Options

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The political strength of Henry VIII's regime lay in his ability to choose advisors who were both wise and learned. One of these men was Sir Brian Tuke. As Master of the Posts, he organized and established England's postal service. In 1528 Sir Brian was appointed treasurer and secretary of the royal household, a position he held until his death in 1545. He was also admired as an eloquent speaker and literary figure who authored a preface to an edition of Chaucer.

The portrait, which shows Tuke at the age of 57, exemplifies the qualities most praised in Holbein's work: precise observation of detail and impartial, accurate portrayal of the face. Yet the image is also tinged with gentle sorrow. On the table beneath Tuke's left hand is a folded paper bearing a quotation from the Book of Job (10:20) which begins, "Are not my days few?" The gravity of the sentiment is echoed in Tuke's countenance; his faint smile is pained and his eyes, fixed but not focused, seem melancholy.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/german-painting-fifteenth-through-seventeenth-centuries.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 35

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 49.1 x 38.5 cm (19 5/16 x 15 3/16 in.)
    framed: 67 x 57.5 x 7.6 cm (26 3/8 x 22 5/8 x 3 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.65

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Sir Paul Methuen [1672-1757], London; by inheritance to his cousin and godson, Paul Methuen [1723-1795], Corsham Court, Wiltshire;[1] by inheritance to his son, Paul Cobb Methuen [1752-1816], Corsham Court; by inheritance to his son, Paul Methuen, 1st baron Methuen [1779-1849], Corsham Court. Richard Sanderson, London and Edinburgh; (sale, Christie's, London, 17 June 1848, no. 7); possibly to Seguier(?), London.[2] Richard Grosvenor [d. 1869], 2nd marquis of Westminster, Eaton Hall, Cheshire, by 1867;[3] probably by inheritance 1869 to his daughter, Lady Theodora Guest, Inwood, Somerset, until 1913; (Robert Langton Douglas, London), 1913, held jointly with (P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd., London);[4] sold 20 May 1913 to (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York);[5] sold April 1914 to Watson B. Dickerman [d. 1923], New York; his widow, Mrs. Watson B. Dickerman, New York, probably 1923-1929/1930; consigned 1929 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[6] purchased April 1930 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The first published reference to the painting is Johann David Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, 2 vols., London, 1836: 2:87. For the history of the collection see Corsham Court, Wiltshire, 1983: 23-31. There is no way of knowing if the portrait of Sir Brian Tuke belonging to Robert Sidney, Lord Lisle, and seen by John Evelyn on 27 August 1678, is the Gallery's panel or another version, although this is sometimes given as part of the provenance; see E.S. de Beer, ed., The Diary of John Evelyn, 6 vols., Oxford, 1955: 4, 143.
[2] The copy of the Christie's sale catalogue of the Sanderson collection in the possession of the Provenance Index of the Getty Art History Information Program, Santa Monica, has a hand written inscription in the margin, of "Seguier" or possibly "Leguin". Martha Hepworth's letter of 2 August 1988 to Susan E. Davis, in NGA curaorial files, notes that this is a later annotation by Frank Simpson, Librarian at the Barber Institute. The person has not been identified; William Seguier, the dealer, restorer, and first Keeper of the National Gallery, London, died in 1843.
[3] Ralph Nicholson Wornum, Some Account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein, Painter, of Augsburg, London, 1867: 294, is the first mention of the painting as being in the possession of the Marquis of Westminster, but notes that it was brought for the Marquis at the Sanderson sale of 1848. This is not independently verified, but if so, then the name in the margin of the catalogue could refer to the agent.
[4] Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (1979): 423-425, and the Getty Provenance Index. Douglas' letter of 6 May 1913 to Johnson is in the Archive of the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art; see Lawrence W. Nichols, letter of 29 March 1990 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files. See also letter from Douglas to Fowles dated 1 May 1941, Duveen Brothers Records, Box 244 (reel 299).
[5] Nancy C. Little, Librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., letter of 4 December 1978 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files, states that the painting was purchased from Colnaghi's on 20 May 1913 and sold to W.B. Dickerman in April 1914.
[6] Nancy C. Little, letter of 4 December 1978, cited in note 5.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1868

  • Third Special Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington Museum, London, 1868, no. 625.

1880

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Royal Academy, London, 1880, no. 188.

1909

  • Exhibition Illustrative of Early English Portraiture, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1909, no. 43.

1915

  • Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Old and Modern Painters, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1915, no. 4.

2006

  • Holbein in England, Tate Britain, London, 2006-2007, no. 141, repro.

Bibliography

1836

  • Passavant, Johann David. Tour of a German Artist in England. Translated by Elizabeth Eastlake. 2 vols. London, 1836: 2:87.

1837

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris. 3 vols. Berlin, 1837-1839: 2(1838):304-305.

1838

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Works of Art and Artists in England. 3 vols. Translated by H. E. Lloyd. London, 1838: 3:93-94.

1867

  • Wornum, Ralph Nicholson. Some Account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein, Painter, of Augsburg. London, 1867: 294-295.

1869

  • T.H.D. "Holbein's Portrait of Sir Brian Tuke." The Athenaeum no. 2186 (18 September, 1869): 376.

1872

  • Woltmann, Alfred. Holbein and his Time. London, 1872: 315-317.

1876

  • Walpole, Horace. Anecdotes of Painting in England; with some Account of the Principal Artists. 3 vols. London, 1876: 1:82.

1879

  • Crowe, J. A., ed. Handbook of Painting. The German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Based on the Handbook of Kugler. 2 vols. London, 1879: 1:208-209.

1903

  • Davies, Gerald S. Hans Holbein the Younger. London, 1903: 219.

1907

  • Schmid, Heinrich Alfred. "Holbein, Hans, d. J." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 17(1924):352.

1909

  • Fry, Roger E. "Early English Portraiture at the Burlington Fine Arts Club." The Burlington Magazine 15 (1909): 74.

1910

  • Cust, Lionel. "A Portrait of Queen Catherine Howard, by Hans Holbein the Younger." The Burlington Magazine 17 (1910): 194.

1912

  • Ganz, Paul. Hans Holbein d.J.: des Meisters Gemälde in 252 Abbildungen. (Klassiker der Kunst, vol. 20) Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1912: 20:79, 238, repro.

1913

  • Chamberlain, Arthur B. Hans Holbein the Younger. 2 vols. London, 1913: 1:299, 331-333, 337, repro.

1923

  • Tatlock, Robert Rattray. "Sir Bryan Tuke, by Holbein." The Burlington Magazine 42, no 142 (May 1923): 246, 251, repro.

1927

  • Vaughan, Malcolm. "Holbein Portraits in America." International Studio 88 (1927): 23, 25, repro.

1936

  • Kuhn, Charles L. A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1936: 79-80, no. 351.

1937

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 43.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 99, no. 65.

  • Held, Julius S. "Masters of Northern Europe, 1430-1660, in the National Gallery." Art News 40, no. 8 (June 1941): 12.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. Book of Illustrations. Washington, 1942: 38, 240, fig. 65.

1948

  • Schmid, Heinrich Alfred. Hans Holbein der Jüngere. Sein Aufstieg zur Meisterschaft und sein Englischer Stil. 3 vols., 1945-1948. Basel, 1948: 2:386.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 63, repro.

1950

  • Christoffel, Ulrich. Hans Holbein d.J. Berlin, 1950: 38.

  • Ganz, Paul. Hans Holbein: Die Gemälde, eine Gesamtausgabe. Basel, 1950: 217, no. 51, fig. 88. (English ed. The Paintings of Hans Holbein, First Complete Edition. London, 1950: 11, 234, no. 51, pl.88)

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 92, color repro.

1955

  • Evelyn, John. "Kalendarium 1673-1689." In Diary of John Evelyn, edited by E.S. de Beer. 6 vols. Oxford, 1955: 4:141, 143.

1959

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "Midas on Parnassus." Art News Annual no. 28 (1959): 53, repro.

1960

  • Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 10-11, 38-39, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 122, repro. 123.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 69.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:118, color repro.

1968

  • Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting, from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. New York, 1968: 411, fig. 551.

  • Christensen, Erwin O. A Guide to Art Museums in the United States. New York, 1968: 131, no. 282, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture: Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 60, repro.

1971

  • Salvini, Roberto and Hans Werner Grohn. L'opera pittorica completa di Holbein il Giovane. Milan, 1971: 107, no. 120, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 178, 179, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 156, no. 174, repro. 157.

1979

  • Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III: Agent for the Metropolita Museum." Apollo 109, no. 208 (June 1979): 423, 425, fig. 34; 427 nt. 17.

1980

  • Hand, John Oliver. "The Portrait of Sir Brian Tuke by Hans Holbein the Younger." Studies in the History of Art 9 (1980): 33-49, fig. 2, 7.

1981

  • Sutton, Denys. "British Collecting, I. Early Patrons and Collectors." Apollo 114, no. 237 (November 1981): 284, 286, fig. 5.

1983

  • Fletcher, John and Margaret Cholmondeley Tapper. "Hans Holbein the Younger at Antwerp and in England, 1526-28." Apollo 117, no. 252 (February 1983): 93.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 156, no. 168, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 205, repro.

  • Rowlands, John. Holbein. The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger. Complete Edition. Oxford, 1985: 144-145, no. 64, pl. 102.

1988

  • Rowlands, John. The Age of Dürer and Holbein. German Drawings 1400-1550. Exh. cat. British Museum. London, 1988: 238, under no. 206.

1989

  • Howard, Maurice and Nigel Llewellyn. "Painting and Imagery." The Cambridge Guide to the Arts in Britain, edited by Boris Ford. 9 vols. (Vol. 3: Renaissance and Reformation.) Cambridge, 1989: 3:230, repro. 231.

  • Goodwin, Jack C. "n to Ally-Pally: Stemp World London 90 to Be Held at Alexandra Palace." The American Philatelist 103, no. 12 (December 1989): 1145, fig.

1991

  • Hand, John Oliver. "Research on the Collections." Circle Bulletin No. 8 (Fall 1991): 3 p., unpaginated.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 65, repro.

  • Cherry, John. "The Milton Keynes Medieval Gold Cross." Minerva 3, no. 2 (May/June 1992): 35, fig.

  • Hall, Nicholas H. J., ed. Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi, New York. New York, 1992: 133.

1993

  • Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 91-97, color repro. 93.

  • Cuttler, Charles D. "Holbein's Inscriptions." Sixteenth Century Journal 34 no. 2 (1993): 374, fig. 3

  • Russell, Stella Pandell. Art in the World 4th ed. Fort Worth, 1993: 321, fig. 13.22.

1995

  • Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 17.

1997

  • Bätschmann, Oskar, and Pascal Griener. Hans Holbein. Translated from German by Cecilia Hurley and Pascal Griener. London, 1997: 176-177, 180, color fig. 235.

1998

  • Klinger, D. M. and Antje Hötter. Die Malerbrüder Ambrosius und Hans d.J. Holbein: Werkverzeichnis, Gemälde und Miniaturen. Nürnberg, 1998: 202-203, no. 67, repro.

2002

  • North, John. _ The Ambassadors’ Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance_. London, 2002: 320, nt. 304.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 150-151, no. 115, color repro.

  • Foister, Susan. Holbein and England. New Haven, 2004: 42, 241, fig. 241.

2005

  • Sander, Jochen. Hans Holbein D.J. Tafelmaler in Basel 1515-1532. Munich, 2005: 311 nt. 178, 347, nt. 16.

2014

  • Bätschmann, Oskar, and Pascal Griener. Hans Holbein. Rev. and expanded second edition. Translated from German by Cecilia Hurley and Pascal Griener. London, 2014: 250, 252, color fig. 248.

Inscriptions

across top: BRIANVS TVKE, MILES, ANo ETATIS SVAE, LVII; across center: .DROIT ET AVANT. (Upright and forward [the sitter's motto]); lower left on folded paper: NVNQVID NON PAVCITAS DIERVM / MEORVM FINIETVR BREVI? (Are not the days of my life few?); at top of cross: INRI

Wikidata ID

Q20175924

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