Thomas Pead
- Attributed to
- Cornelis Ketel, Dutch, 1548-1616
Attributed to Cornelis Ketel, Thomas Pead, 1578. Oil paint on panel; 33 × 27 in. (83.8 × 68.6 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2021.31
Thomas Pead was Registrar of the Archdeaconries of Norwich in Norfolk and Sudbury in Suffolk. His work entailed recording the counties’ births and deaths, and he is portrayed here with the quill and paper of his profession. Pead’s hand rests on a skull, a further reference to his work and also to a type of painting popular at the time. These “vanitas” pictures urged the viewer to make the most of life because death comes to us all. Ketel’s somber, realistic portrait style was briefly popular in the 1570s.
- “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018
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