The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Portrait of Thomas Browne
Portrait of Sir Thomas Browne [Engraving].Click image for full-size. Subject of/in a work of artThomas Browne (19 Nov 1605-19 Oct 1682) In Print: Souvenir of Sir Thomas Browne, With Twelve Illustrations, and Notes, n.p. Description:The oil painting of which this is a faithful representation is to be seen in the Church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich. It was formerly in the possession of Dr. Edward Howman, who resided in the house in which Sir Thomas Browne lived. The painting was presented by him to the parish about the year 1739. It is well known that there are in existence three portraits of the great man, all of them situated in cities intimately associated with his life. The portrait in the Bodleian Library at Oxford was given, in 1735, by Mr. Humphrey Bartholomew, M.A., together with a collection of 50,000 pamphlets. It was at this University that Sir Thomas Browne, in his eighteenth year, entered in 1623 as a fellow-commoner at Broadgates Hall, which was soon after endowed as a College, and named after William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, the Chancellor of the University and High Steward of Norwich Cathedral, a friend of Shakespeare, whom Shakespeare calls "Lord of my love," " My all the world," and ''Time's best jewell." Sir Thomas Browne was chosen to deliver the first oration at the opening of the new College; he was then a student of only nine months' standing. The next portrait is situated in the Royal College of Physicians, London, of which Sir Thomas was an honorary Fellow, and to which it was presented by Dr. Edward Browne. The third is at Norwich, the city in which he practised as a physician for forty-six years. It was most probably painted by a Mr. H. Morland, a portrait painter living in Norwich at that time, and well known to Sir Thomas Browne. The face is very perfect, the features as fresh as if painted yesterday. On this point Walter Pater says: "A dreamy sweetness of character we may find expressed in his very features." The three pictures were, in all probability, painted about the same period; the Bodleian at the end of 1671, or the beginning of 1672, when he was sixty-six years of age; the Norwich one subsequently. They all represent him as being past the middle period of life. His portrait has been engraved by five English and three Dutch Artists. He is described as being remarkably handsome, and "to have possessed in a singular degree the blessings of a grave and yet cheerful countenance. His virtues were many and remarkably conspicuous; his probity such as gained him universal respect" (Williams, n.p.)