<i>Portrait Study of Sir Thomas More</i>. Black and coloured chalks on unprimed paper, <span style="white-space:nowrap">38 × 25.8 cm</span>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Collection" class="extiw" title="w:Royal Collection">Royal Collection</a>, Windsor.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More" class="extiw" title="w:Thomas More">Sir Thomas More</a> (1477/88–1535) was a leading English humanist scholar and Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII of England. He was executed in 1535 after refusing to sign the oath to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Supremacy" class="extiw" title="w:Acts of Supremacy">Act of Supremacy</a>. More received Hans Holbein as a guest in 1526, after a recommendation from his friend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus" class="extiw" title="w:Desiderius Erasmus">Desiderius Erasmus</a>. Holbein painted <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Thomas_More,_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg" title="File:Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg">a portrait of More</a> based on a <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_More,_portrait_study_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg" title="File:Thomas More, portrait study by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg">second, similar, study</a> and also a group portrait of More's family, now lost, in which More was pictured in the same pose. Seven portrait sketches of More family members survive in addition to this one, along with <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Study_for_portrait_of_the_More_family,_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg" title="File:Study for portrait of the More family, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg">a pen-and-ink study for the group portrait</a>. Holbein's other drawing of More, which is pricked for transfer, is considered superior to this one, whose outlines have been reworked by another hand; the wash is also not by Holbein. However, a hint of left-handedness has been detected in some lines in the collar, and Holbein was left-handed. Art scholar K. T. Parker wrote of this drawing: "The general effect is empty, and even as a rapid and preliminary essay in portraiture, rubbed and retouched,  the drawing is somewhat unconvincing" (K. T. Parker, <i>The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor Castle,</i> Oxford: Phaidon, 1945, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/822974?referer=di&amp;ht=edition">OCLC 822974</a>, p. 36).
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Hans_Holbein_the_Younger" class="extiw" title="w:en:Hans Holbein the Younger"><span title="German artist and printmaker (1497-1543)">Hans Holbein the Younger</span></a>
</bdi>
1526–27
John Guy, <i>A Daughter's Love: Thomas &amp; Margaret More,</i> London: Fourth Estate, 2008, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780007192311" title="Special:BookSources/9780007192311">ISBN 9780007192311</a>.