Portrait of a Man with an Open Book (front) Branch of Holly (back)

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Samuel Courtauld Trust, 1987

The open book and the two rings inset with ancient carved gemstones are evidence of the sitter’s interest in literature and antiquity. He may have been a cleric or scholar. On the reverse is his motto, Je he ce que mord (‘I hate things that bite’ in old French) illustrated by a beautiful branch of spiky holly.