Thomas Pead

Thomas Pead

1578
Artist
Attributed to
Cornelis Ketel, Dutch, 1548-1616
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on panel
Accession Number
2021.31
Credit Line
Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust

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

Dimensions
image height: 33 in, 83.8200 cm; image width: 27 in, 68.5800 cm; frame height: 41 5/8 in, 105.7275 cm; frame width: 35 1/2 in, 90.17 cm; frame depth: 3 3/8 in, 8.5725 cm
Inscription
Inscribed and dated at upper right, ANO, 1578 / ÆTATIS SVE, 39; on skull, RESPICE FINEM; at upper left, STAT SUA CUIGZ DIES BREVE ET  IRREPARABILE TEMPUS, / OMNIBUS EST VITA SED FAINAM EXTENDERE FACTA, / HOC VIRTUTIS OPUS VIVIT POST FUNERA VITAM. / INTEGRA DUM RES EST SERAM REMINISCERE FINEM /  PREMEDITARE MORI FLAGITIOSA CAVE, / MORS IBI FALCE METET, QUA VITA INDUSTRIA SENET  / VITAGZ SUARESCET MORS UBI FALCE MANET.
Department
European and American Art Before 1900
Collection
European Painting and Sculpture before 1900
This object is currently on view

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. 
 

Known Provenance
Fellowes family, Shotesham Park, Norfolk; Shotesham Park sale, Christie’s, London, September 25, 1979, lot 379; sale, Sotheby’s, London, November 12, 1997, lot 23; from which acquired by William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Johnson Berger, Denver; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2021. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018

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