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Notes
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This painting demonstrates the different purposes portraits have served at different periods in history, being created not to flatter the sitter but to act as visual confirmation that Thomas Braithwaite wrote a will. In the seventeenth century it was thought that if it a man was shown to have put his personal affairs in order, then he would have an easier transition to the afterlife.
Looking at this painting, we are made to feel that we have become witnesses to the act, like Braithwaite’s friend George Preston of Holker, whose coat of arms are painted above his head as an additional form of identification.
Abbot Hall
Kendal
Title
Thomas Braithwaite of Ambleside Making His Will
Date
1607
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 66 x W 58.5 cm
Accession number
AH 2351/81
Acquisition method
bequeathed by Colonel G. E. Braithwaite, 1981
Work type
Painting
Abbot Hall
Kirkland, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 5AL England
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