Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Wife
Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Anne Fernely, (detail) c.1560-65. Oil on panel, 90 cm x 75.5 cm. (his), and 88 x 75.5 cm, oil on panel transferred to canvas (hers) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Anthonis Mor van Dashorst, (Utrecht, c.1520-1578). He was one of the leading Netherlandish portraitist and his worked was to be seen in several European courts (he was both King Charles V’s and his son Philip II’s court painter in Spain). He probably initiated his painting career under the supervisión of the painter Jan van Scorel in Utrecht. It is in 1547 when he became a member of the guild of painters in Antwerp being, some time later, one of Cardinal Granvelle’s patronees in the city of Arras. A widely travelled artist whose knowledge was to be highly acclaimed by his patrons. One of England’s most active merchants in the Netherlands during his time and founder of the Royal Exchange and of Gresham College, London, Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579). In both paintings, Sir Thomas and his wife, Anne Fernely, appeared depicted expensively dressed in agreement with their social status.
Gresham (renowned for Gresham's law "Bad money drives out good money") was painted with his wife Lady Anne Fernely (c.1520-1596). Neither of the portraits are signed but the attribution to Mor is not doubted and dates from 1792. The Rijksmuseum bought these two portraits from the Soviet Union in 1931 where they had been hung in the Hermitage since 1838. The painting was transferred from wood to canvas. This explains why on the surface of the painting typical craquelures of a panel painting as well as the knots of a canvas can be seen. The result of the last restoration was that an elegant appearance in both paintings is there to be appreciated by the viewers. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites