Holbein painted the portraits of the Chancellor and family; and no less
than six different pictures of this subject are attributed to his hand;
but of these Walpole thinks only two to possess good evidences of
originality. One of these was in Deloo's collection, and after his death
was purchased by Mr. Roper, More's grandson. Another was in the Palazzo
Delfino at Venice, where it was long on sale, the price first set being
£1500; but the King of Poland purchased it about 1750, for near £400.
The coloring of this work is beautiful beyond description, and the
carnations have that bloom so peculiar to Holbein, who touched his works
until not a touch remained discernible. Walpole says, "It was evidently
designed for a small altar-piece to a chapel; in the middle on a throne
sits the Virgin and child; on one side kneels an elderly gentleman with
two sons, one of them a naked infant opposite kneeling are his wife and
daughters."
There is recorded a bon-mot of Sir Thomas on the birth of his son. He
had three daughters, but his wife was impatient for a son: at last they
had one, but not much above an idiot--"you have prayed so long for a
boy," said the Chancellor, "that now we have got one who I believe will
be a boy as long as he lives!"