Elizabethan portrait sells at auction for £3.2m

A 1562 painting of a duke has sold for more than £3.2m, said by the auctioneers to be a record for an Elizabethan portrait at auction.

Hans Eworth's portrait of Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who was born in the county at Kenninghall, depicts the Tudor noble at the "height of his powers".

It was expected to fetch £2m-£3m and was sold to Clore Wyndham fine art company on behalf of the Duke of Norfolk and the Arundel Castle Trustees for £3,212,000.

The auction house said the price not only marked a record for the artist, but was also "a global record for an Elizabethan work at auction".

The painting was created as a pendant piece alongside a portrait of one of the duke's wives, Margaret Audley.

The backgrounds of the portraits, which include a shield, match up when side by side, which Julian Gascoigne, senior director in the Old Masters paintings department at Sotheby's, said added to its significance and was "completely unique" in British art at the time.

Mr Gascoigne said: "It's nearly 500 years old.

"Paintings of this sort of quality and this kind of condition, of that age, very rarely appear on the market.

"It is spectacularly well preserved and in the most amazing condition with very minimal, if any, retouching or damage to it and for a painting that is nearly half a millennium old, it's pretty impressive."

The Howard family's principal seat is Arundel Castle in West Sussex, however, the family have links to Norfolk, including Castle Rising.

While the painting was acquired by the first Lord Rothschild and part of his family's collection from the 19th Century, more recently it has been loaned to Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.

At the time of the portrait, during the reign of Elizabeth I, the duke was said to be "the most important, powerful man".

But after the death of his third wife, he tried to select Mary Queen of Scots as his fourth wife.

He ended up arrested and imprisoned. He was said to have been involved in the Ridolfi plot to try to assassinate Elizabeth I and was executed.

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