Sir Thomas Isham (1656–1681), 3rd Bt Isham

Sir Thomas Isham, 3rd Baronet (1656–1681), was an English Catholic who traveled to Rome during the 1670s as part of the Grand Tour circuit that routinely brought wealthy young Englishmen to the Eternal City. Having his portrait painted by Maratta — at that moment Rome's most celebrated living painter — was both a cultural achievement and a social statement. Catholic English travelers had particular reasons to feel at home in Rome, and the Isham family of Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire had maintained Catholic sympathies across generations. Maratta painted this portrait around 1676, when the sitter was approximately twenty years old. The young baronet's portrait connects Maratta's Roman studio directly to the English Catholic gentry, illustrating how the artist's clientele ranged from popes and cardinals to young English travelers seeking cultural distinction. The portrait remains at Lamport Hall, still the Isham family seat, making it one of the rare Maratta portraits still in its original family provenance.

This three-quarter or half-length portrait of a young English aristocrat gave Maratta the opportunity to contrast an English sitter's complexion and fashion sensibility with his Roman painterly training. The paint handling is alert and confident — Maratta rarely labored over portrait surfaces — with the face rendered in delicate transitions and the costume described more broadly. The relatively pale English complexion would have required slightly cooler flesh tone than his Italian or Spanish sitters.