The traditional identification of the sitter is doubtful. John Harmar (c. 1555-1613) was Headmaster (1588-95) and Warden (1596-1613) of Winchester. He was a Protestant scholar of considerable renown and was prominently involved in the translation of the King James Bible.

The inscription identifying the sitter is not original, but added in the 18th or 19th century. The inscribed date of 1622 (not readily visible except in photographs) is apparently original and casts doubt on the identification, since Harmar had died in 1613. In the College Archives is a correspondence with Sir Basil Mott (1859-1938) about a portrait of Harmar that had descended through his wife’s family, and which apparently shows a different sitter (the present whereabouts of this picture are unknown).

This portrait is listed (and identified as Harmar) in the 1734 inventory of the Warden’s Gallery. It may have been among the portraits of past wardens bequeathed by Warden Nicholas in 1707.

Literature: Winchester Archaeological Society, Winchester College: its history, buildings and customs (Winchester, 1926), p. 159; P. Quarrie, Winchester College and the King James Bible (Winchester, 2011), p. 18; R. Foster (ed.), Fifty Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 16

Location: Fellows’ Library

Provenance: Unknown, before 1734