Thomas Churchyard was a student of Dedham Grammar School, same as John Constable, and of the Classics and Religious Speculation, and Erasmus.  He also studied French and English poets, philosophy and natural history.  He became a lawyer but his passion was to become an artist.  

He became a landscape painter, this being a portrait is very rare for Churchyard.  This portrait of Erasmus is a copy of Holbein's original and was certainly painted in homage to the scholar.