ENGLISH SCHOOL (1606), PORTRAIT OF THOMAS POPE, AGED 8, AND WILLIAM POPE, AGED 10

ENGLISH SCHOOL (1606)PORTRAIT OF THOMAS POPE, AGED 8, AND WILLIAM POPE, AGED 10, BOTH FULL-LENGTH, STANDING, WEARING WHITE SLASHED DOUBLETSOil on canvasInscribed with date 1606 (upper right) and with the identity and ages of the sitters (above their heads and by their feet)138 x 98cm (54¼ x 38½ in.)Provenance:By descent to Viscount Dillon, Wroxton AbbeyFrancis Howard coll. Bt. SpencerSale, Christie's, October 23rd 1969, lot 279Property from the collection of Sir Mark and Lady WeinbergLiterature:Lionel Cust, 'Marcus Gheeraerts', Walpole Society, Vol. III, p. 39, pl XXVIIIThis grand double portrait depicts Thomas Pope, 3rd Earl of Downe (1598-1668) and his elder brother Sir William Pope, 2nd Earl of Downe (1596-1624). The Popes migrated to Oxfordshire from Kent at the beginning of the fifteenth century. They were small landowners until Sir Thomas Pope, who sat for Buckingham in 1536 and Berkshire in 1539, became one of the richest commoners in England as treasurer of the Court of Augmentations during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was also the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. The sitters were sons of William Pope, 1st Earl Downe and Anne Hopton (1561-1625), widow of Henry, 3rd Baron Wentworth and daughter of Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower of London. They both attended Oxford and matriculated in 1614. Thomas was knighted at Woodstock in 1625. In 1636 he married Beata, daughter of Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton, Gloucestershire. The Royalists imprisoned him for six weeks at Oxford during the Civil War and he was held in 1656 on suspicion of complicity in the 'Cavalier Plot'. He succeeded his nephew, Thomas to the Earldom and the estate of Wroxton Abbey near Banbury, Oxfordshire in 1660. William married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of (Sir) Thomas Watson of Halstead, Kent, in 1615. He then travelled to Italy from 1617-1620 and upon his return became the second and last of his family to sit in the Commons, when he served as knight of the shire for Oxfordshire. Other portraits of the sitters at a later age are in the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Centre for British art (William Pope) and the Tate (Thomas Pope).Condition Report: The canvas has been relined and is on a later stretcher, which is sound and secure. The canvas has been trimmed around the edges. The reline is visible along the upper edge. The paint layers appear stable. Minor abrasions and some wear to the paint surface. Some fine surface cracks, including two vertical lines running down through the sitter's faces which are slightly raised but secure. There is a possibility that the painting may originally have been on panel and was then transferred to canvas. Inspection under UV light shows extensive scattered retouching across the image including vertical lines in the sitters faces and in the darker shadows around the figures. Some surface dirt and the varnish layer is uneven and discoloured, but should respond well to cleaning and revarnishing.Condition Report Disclaimer