Hans Holbein, the Elder | German painter | Britannica.com Hans Holbein, the Elder Jan van Eyck Hans Holbein, the Elder, (born c. 1465, Imperial Free City of Augsburg [Germany]—died 1524, Isenheim, Alsace [now in France]), German painter associated with the Augsburg school. He was the senior member of a family of painters that included his brother Sigmund and his sons Ambrosius (c. 1494–1519/20) and the famous Hans Holbein the Younger . Nothing is known of Holbein’s early life and training, but he was married and established as a painter in Augsburg by about 1493. Holbein’s early works, which include the Weingarten Altar (1493; Augsburg Cathedral), the St. Afra Altar (c. 1495; parts in the bishop’s palace at Eichstätt), the picture called the Basilica of St.

Mary (1499; Augsburg), and a Passion series in 12 scenes (Donaueschingen), are characterized by deep, rich colouring and by balanced compositions of figures moving slowly and deliberately on a narrow stage. They show a knowledge of the art of Rogier van der Weyden , which has led some authorities to suppose that Holbein had visited the Netherlands, but ignorance of his Augsburg predecessors precludes any real evaluation of the immediate sources of his style. A visit in 1501 to Frankfurt am Main , where, with the assistance of Sigmund Holbein and Leonhard Beck, he painted the high altar of the Dominican monastery (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main), initiated a new stylistic phase that includes also the Kaisheim Altar (1502; Munich) and the Basilica of St. Paul (c. 1503–04; Augsburg). These paintings have much greater depth than before, with a freer grouping of highly individualized figures—often portraits—in rather lively movement. It has been suggested that this new manner was perhaps inspired by a contact with the early work of Matthias Grünewald in Frankfurt.

In a third and last phase, after 1510, including the St. Catherine Altar (1512; Augsburg), the St. Sebastian Altar (1516; Munich), and the Fountain of Life (1519; Lisbon), Holbein began to use Italianate ornament and evolved a compromise between the late Gothic and Renaissance styles similar to that of Gerard David in Bruges . However, he then found himself overshadowed by artists whose grasp of the Italian idiom was sounder than his own. In 1517, having fallen into financial difficulties, Holbein left Augsburg and went to Isenheim. Holbein’s honesty and insight as a portraitist are best seen in his many silverpoint drawings. It is clear that the portraiture of his more famous son must have owed much to his teaching. He also made designs for glass painting , and windows were designed by him in Eichstätt Cathedral (1502) and in the churches of St. Ulrich at Augsburg and St. James at Straubing.

Learn More in these related articles: 1000+ images about Holbein on Pinterest | Portrait, England and Renaissance Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Holbein 212 Pins382 Followers Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century Hans Holbein, the Younger - Biography Biography of Hans Holbein, the Younger Hans Holbein, the Younger Name: Hans Holbein, the Younger Bith Date: c. 1497 Place of Birth: Augsberg, Germany Nationality: German Gender: Male Occupations: painter, graphic artist The German painter and graphic artist Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543) combined consummate technical skill with a keen eye for realistic appearance and was the first portrait painter to achieve international fame. Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg, was the son of a painter, Hans Holbein the Elder, and received his first artistic training from his father.

Hans the Younger may have had early contacts with the Augsburg painter Hans Burgkmair the Elder. In 1515 Hans the Younger and his older brother, Ambrosius, went to Basel, where they were apprenticed to the Swiss painter Hans Herbster. Hans the Younger worked in Lucerne in 1517 and visited northern Italy in 1518-1519. On Sept. 25, 1519, Holbein was enrolled in the painters' guild of Basel, and the following year he set up his own workshop, became a citizen of Basel, and married the widow Elsbeth Schmid, who bore him four children. He painted altarpieces, portraits, and murals and made designs for woodcuts, stained glass, and jewelry. Among his patrons was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had settled in Basel in 1521. In 1524 Holbein visited France. Holbein gave up his workshop in Basel in 1526 and went to England, armed with a letter of introduction from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, who received him warmly. Holbein quickly achieved fame and financial success.

In 1528 he returned to Basel, where he bought property and received commissions from the city council, Basel publishers, Erasmus, and others. However, with iconoclastic riots instigated by fanatic Protestants, Basel hardly offered the professional security that Holbein desired. In 1532 Holbein returned to England and settled permanently in London, although he left his family in Basel, retained his Basel citizenship, and visited Basel in 1538. He was patronized especially by country gentlemen from Norfolk, German merchants from the Steel Yard in London, and King Henry VIII and his court. Holbein died in London between Oct. 7 and Nov. 29, 1543. First Period: Basel (1515-1526) With few exceptions, Holbein's work falls naturally into the four periods corresponding to his alternate residences in Basel and London. His earliest extant work is a tabletop with trompe l'oeil motifs (1515) painted for the Swiss standard-bearer Hans Baer.

Other notable works of the first Basel period are a diptych of Burgomaster Jakob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife, Dorothea Kannengiesser (1516); a portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach (1519); an unsparingly realistic Dead Christ (1521); a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Saints (1522); several portraits of Erasmus, of which the one in Paris (1523 or shortly after), with its accurate observation of the scholar's concentrated attitude and frail person and its beautifully balanced composition, is particularly outstanding; and woodcuts, among which the series of the Dance of Death (ca. 1521-1525, though not published until 1538) represents one of the high points of the artist's graphic oeuvre.

Probably about 1520 Holbein painted an altarpiece, the Last Supper, now somewhat cut down, which is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, and four panels with eight scenes of the Passion of Christ (possibly the shutters of the Last Supper altarpiece), which contain further reminiscences of Italian painting, particularly Andrea Mantegna, the Lombard school, and Raphael, but with lighting effects that are characteristically northern. His two portraits of Magdalena Offenburg, as Laïs of Corinth and Venus with Cupid (1526), were evidently influenced by French portrait painting, although they reflect Leonardesque ideals and the Laïs extends her right hand in a manner reminiscent of that of Christ in Leonardo's Last Supper. Second Period: England (1526-1528) The preserved works of Holbein's second period consist exclusively of portraits, among them Sir Thomas More; Sir Henry Guildford and its pendant, Lady Mary Guildford; William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury (two versions), all of 1527; and the very sensitive Niklaus Kratzer, shown with his astronomical instruments (1528).

The lost portrait of Sir Thomas More and his family, known through Holbein's drawing of the whole composition, seven preliminary sketches for the heads, and several painted copies, is a pioneering work in group portraiture. Third Period: Basel (1528-1532) During this period Holbein continued his activity as a portrait painter, decorated the facade of a house, "zum Kaiserstuhl" (of which preparatory drawings exist), completed the decoration of the council chamber in the town hall (1530; fragments are preserved in Basel), and designed woodcuts for the Old Testament (1531, published 1538) and other books. The masterpiece among the portraits of this period is the Artist's Family, representing his wife and two of his children (1528/1529); it is a touching portrait painted with a dispassionate realism that conveys with utmost clarity the gloom and loneliness of the woman. The altarpiece Madonna of Mercy with the Family of Jakob Meyer, which Holbein had begun about 1526, before he left for England, was completed in 1528.

It is a symmetrically organized picture with the figures closely contained in a pyramidal group in front of a shell-backed niche of Renaissance inspiration. Fourth Period: England (1532-1543) The last period of Holbein's life marks the culmination of his career as a portrait painter, with his subjects now mainly the wealthy German merchants in London and the King and his court.

Characteristic examples are George Gisze (1532), a Danzig merchant shown in the surroundings of his business activity; Hermann Wedigh (1532), a merchant of Cologne; The Ambassadors (1533), a full-length double portrait, tightly organized and precise in the rendering of musical and astronomical instruments and an anamorphic skull; Robert Cheseman of Dormanswell (1533); Charles de Solier, Sieur de Morette (1534/1535); Henry VIII (1536; Lugano-Castagnola), the first of several portraits of the monarch shown in full regal splendor, and its pendant, Jane Seymour; Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan (1538), a full-length portrait; Edward VI as a child (1539); Anne of Cleves (1539/1540; Paris); and Sir William Butts (ca. 1543). During this period Holbein learned the technique of portrait miniatures and produced important works of this kind, such as Anne of Cleves (1539/1540; London) and Mrs. Pemberton (ca.

1540). Other works of this final period include a project for a triumphal arch with Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus for the merchants of the Steel Yard on the occasion of the coronation procession of Anne Boleyn (1533); allegorical wall decorations in the guildhall of the Steel Yard (ca. 1533; lost); designs for goldsmith work and jewelry for Henry VIII (from ca. 1536 on); and the decoration of the privy chamber in Whitehall Palace (1537; destroyed by fire in 1698), for which a cartoon for the left side, showing Henry VII and Henry VIII, is preserved. His Style Holbein's art is characterized by superb technical skill, an unerring sense of composition and pattern, a sound grasp of three-dimensional form and space, and a sharp eye for realistic detail. His portraits are painted with a passion for objectivity, the outward appearance of his subjects directly reflecting their inner character or mood without the intrusion of the artist's attitude toward them.

His drawings, frequently executed in black and colored chalks (following a practice he may have observed in France), bear testimony to this artistic temperament: they are precise and controlled, and the outline dominates as the expressive agent. Holbein's development was gradual and appears to have been guided essentially by his successful search for objective precision. In the work of his second English period he concentrated more on clear contours and ornament and was less concerned with three-dimensional form and space, with the result that his last portraits are relatively flat and decorative, characteristics generally associated with 16th-century mannerism. Further Reading A concise biography and critical account of Holbein's work are in Paul Ganz, The Paintings of Hans Holbein (1st complete edition, 1950). See also Arthur B. Chamberlain, Hans Holbein the Younger (2 vols., 1913). Specialized studies include K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle (1945), and James M. Clark, The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein (1947). Need a custom written paper? Let our professional writers save your time.

Not a member yet? Holbein the Younger | Article about Holbein the Younger by The Free Dictionary Holbein the Younger | Article about Holbein the Younger by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . Holbein, Hans (häns hôl`bīn) the elder, c.1465–1524, German painter and draftsman. Holbein worked principally in Augsburg and Ulm, painting altarpieces for churches and probably creating portraits as well. Such early works as the altarpiece depicting the Life of the Virgin (Augsburg Cathedral) and the large Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore altarpiece (Augsburg) show little divergence from the common practice of the Swabian school, which was influenced by the Flemish style. In later altarpieces done after c.1500, such as those of the Basilica of St. Paul (Augsburg) and of St. Catherine (Augsburg) and especially in his masterly St. Sebastian altarpiece (Munich), Holbein's art shows the influence of Italy.

In addition to his painting, Holbein designed stained glass windows for the cathedral at Eichstatt and for the Church of Saints Ulrich and Afra at Augsburg. He also produced a number of remarkable silverpoint portrait drawings that show something of the same talent for which his son Hans became renowned. Ambrosius Holbein Hans Holbein's older son, Ambrosius Holbein, c.1495–c.1519, is best known for his detailed book illustrations and portraits done in his father's manner. The Basel Museum has several works attributed to him. Hans Holbein the Younger The younger and better known son, Hans Holbein the younger, c.1497–1543, was an outstanding portrait and religious painter of the Northern Renaissance, was influenced by his father and by Hans Burgkmair Burgkmair or Burckmair, Hans , 1473–1531, German engraver, woodcut designer, and painter. Having learned woodcutting from Schongauer, he settled in 1498 in his native Augsburg. ..... Click the link for more information. .

The first half of his life was spent in Basel except for short intervals in Lucerne, Lombardy, and France. He showed his diverse talents early in his career by designing woodcuts and glass paintings, illustrating books, and painting portraits and altarpieces. From youth he enjoyed the friendship of the great humanist Erasmus Erasmus or Desiderius Erasmus [Gr. Erasmus, his given name, and Lat., Desiderius=beloved; both are regarded as the equivalent of Dutch Gerard, Erasmus' father's name], 1466?–1536, Dutch humanist, b. Rotterdam. ..... Click the link for more information. , and he made pen drawings illustrating Erasmus's Praise of Folly. Of this period are the portraits of Jacob Meyer and his wife and the beautiful preliminary drawing of Meyer in red chalk and silverpoint (all: Basel). In 1519 Holbein was admitted to the painters' guild of Basel. Between 1519 and 1526 he decorated many buildings there, including the Town Hall, and painted the Passion Scenes and the celebrated Dead Christ (both in Basel), the altarpiece in Solothurn of the Madonna with St.

Ursus and a Bishop Saint, and the famous Madonna of Burgomaster Meyer altarpiece (Darmstadt). Also of this period are several of his numerous portraits of Erasmus and a portrait of Boniface Amerbach (Basel). In these works the artist, now mature, shows his full genius without relinquishing the polished surface and enameled color of the earlier paintings. He reveals Italian influence in his larger conception and monumental composition and in the design and idealism of the characterization. A bold and subtle line, both precise and flowing, distinguishes these works. From 1526 to 1528, Holbein was in England, where he painted a fine group of portraits, including those of Sir Thomas More (Frick Coll., New York City) and Sir Henry Guildford (Windsor Castle) and his wife (City Art Mus., St. Louis). After another residence (1528–32) in Basel, where he executed a second group of frescoes for the Town Hall (both series later destroyed), he settled in England and worked on portraits and wall paintings.

Among the many famous portraits of these last years are those of Christine of Denmark and The French Ambassadors (both: National Gall., London). In 1536 he became court painter to Henry VIII and made numerous portraits and drawings of the king and his wives. His own wife and children, of whom there is a beautiful group portrait (Basel Mus.), remained in Basel. At 46 Holbein died of the plague in London. In addition to his paintings, Hans Holbein the younger, left to the world magnificent preliminary portrait drawings in which he combined chalk, silverpoint, pen and ink, and other media. Today they are prized as highly as his paintings and may constitute a freer expression of his gift for exquisite characterization. In the beautiful simplicity of their design and in the subtle suggestion of both form and character, they are unsurpassed. Also famous are his woodcuts, which include the Dance of Death series and illustrations for Luther's Bible. Many European museums possess examples of his paintings. At Windsor Castle are 80 Holbein portrait drawings. In the United States the Metropolitan Museum has several portraits; the Frick Collection, New York City, has two; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., has two.

Bibliography See studies by P. Ganz (2d ed. 1956) and M. Kay (1966). 1000+ images about Holbein on Pinterest | Portrait, Windsor and Renaissance Forward Hans Holbein The Younger -self portrait Hans Holbein was a German artist who gained fame in London, painting in the Northern Renaissance style. Although his early English patrons, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn all met the same fate in the Tower of London, Holbein, by 1535 was royal painter to King Henry VIII himself. This portrait of Sir Thomas More, who sided with the Catholic Church against Henry VIII, was painted in 1527.

See More holbein, hans, the young ||| portrait - male ||| sotheby's l15033lot7ynfben Provenance Possibly Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554); Thence possibly by descent to his great-great-grandson Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1585–1646), and recorded as a portrait of Henrico octavo in the inventory of the estate of his widow, Alethea, Countess of Arundel in 1654; Thence possibly by descent to her third son William, 1st Viscount Stafford (1614–1680), Tart Hall, London; Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (1694–1758), probably seen at Carlisle House, Soho, London, and in whose probate inventory of 1759 certainly listed as at Castle Howard; Thence by descent.

Literature Possibly the painting of 'Henrico octavo' listed in the Inventory of Pictures, etc., in the Possession of Alethea, Countes of Arundel, at the time of her death at Amsterdam in 1654, London, Public Record Office, DEL 1,7, ff. 693r.–705v.; Possibly George Vertue, Note Books, Vol. IV, 1736, in Walpole Society, vol. xxiv, 1935–36, p. 117; 4th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms., 1759, no.109, ‘Henry the 8th. A half Length in a Carv’d & Gilt Frame’; England Displayed, being a new, complete, and accurate survey and description of the Kingdom of England and Principality of Wales… By a Society of Gentlemen, 1769, p. 147: ‘Holbein, Harry VIII’; 5th Earl of Carlisle, A List of the Best Pictures at Castle Howard not purchased by me, Ms., 1771, p. 7, no.

6; H. Walpole, 'Journals of Visits to Country Seats', 1772, ed. Paget Toynbee, Walpole Society, XVI (1928) pp.72–73, ‘Henry 8 by Holbein’; John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland, Travels in Great Britain, London 1805, ‘...a Holbein of Henry VIII’; Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, 1st edition, 1805, no. xlvi; J. Britton and E. W. Brayley, The Beauties of England and Wales, London 1812, vol. XVI, p. 256, no. 46; 5th Earl of Carlisle, Probate Inventory, Ms. 1825, p. 7, Little Breakfast Room; Georgiana, Countess of Carlisle, Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures, Ms. 1837, p. 24, no. 46, as hanging in the Music Room; G. F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, vol.

III, London 1838, p. 206, no. 46; 'An old copy of the picture in Warwick Castle'; Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, 4th edition, 1845, p. 10, no. 106, as hanging in the Music Room; 6th Earl of Carlisle Probate Inventory, Ms. 1849, p. 128, no. 106, Music Room; G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. III, London 1854, p. 323 (as a copy); 7th Earl of Carlisle Probate Inventory, Ms. 1865, p. 171, no. 106, Lower Saloon; Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, 1874, no. 34, Mabeuse Room; J. Duthie, Manuscript Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, vol. I, Ms., 1878, no.

28, Mabeuse Room, ‘purchased by Henry 4th Earl of Carlisle’, with the later note: ‘sent to Naworth’; J. Duthie, Manuscript Catalogue of the Pictures at Castle Howard, vol. II, Ms., 1880, no. 24, as hanging in the Mabeuse Room; Hawkesbury, Catalogue of Portraits and Miniatures at Castle Howard and Naworth Castle, c. 1904, p. 73, no. 67, hanging at Naworth in the Music Room (attributed to Hornebolt [sic]); Possibly M. L. Cox, ‘Inventory of the Arundel Collection’, in Burlington Magazine, vol. xix, no. 102, September 1911, p. 324; Rosalind, 9th Countess of Carlisle, Manuscript catalogue of pictures at Castle Howard, 1918, p. 57, no. 24, as back at Castle Howard in the Dining Room; L. Jones, Manuscript Catalogue of Pictures at Castle Howard, Castle Howard Ms. 1926, no. 24; P.

Ganz, 'Henry VIII and his court painter, Hans Holbein', in Burlington Magazine, vol. LXIII, October 1933, pp. 145–55, reproduced in colour and plates III and IV (as Holbein); P. Ganz, `The Castle Howard Portrait of Henry VIII', Burlington Magazine, vol. LXIV, February 1934, pp. 80–86, reproduced (as Holbein); H. A. Schmid, 'Kann man die Urheberschaft Holbeins den Jüngeren nur auf Grund von Photographieren ablehnen?', in Prussian Jahrburch, LV, 1934, pp. 126–38 (as not by Holbein); P. Ganz, 'Holbein and Henry VIII', in Burlington Magazine, vol. LXXXIII, November 1943, p. 271 (as Holbein); H. A. Schmid, Hans Holbein der Jüngere. Sein Austieg zur Meisterschaft und sein Englischer Stil, Basel 1945, pp.

376, 385 (as not by Holbein); P. Ganz, The Paintings of Hans Holbein, London 1956, pp. 254–55, no. 119, reproduced plate 158 (as Holbein); R. Strong, Tudor & Jacobean Portraits, London 1968, vol. I, p. 159, vol. II, reproduced fig. 313; R. Salvini and H. W. Grohn, L'Opera Completa di Holbein, Milan 1971, p. 108, no. 135 (as largely workshop of Holbein); J. Rowlands, Holbein, London 1985, p. 236, no. R. 37(a) (as follower of Holbein).

Catalogue Note ‘I could make seven earls from seven peasants if it pleased me, but I could not make one Hans Holbein, or so excellent an artist, out of seven earls’ (Henry VIII) This portrait has descended for nearly three hundred years or more in the possession of the Howard family, who were among the most powerful and influential families of the entire Tudor era. In the person of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554) they boasted one of the most important members of the court of Henry VIII, and in his nieces Anne Boleyn and her cousin Catherine Howard, two of Henry’s six Queens. Painted in 1542, perhaps for the 3rd Duke, this is considered the prototype of the last official image of the King, who was to die in 1547. It is based upon a likeness produced in the workshop of his most famous court artist, Hans Holbein the Younger, one of the greatest of all portrait painters in the 16th century.

By the time this portrait was painted in 1542 Holbein had been in the service of the English crown for fifteen years and a Court painter for six. For all the vicissitudes of the reign of Henry VIII his position as the King’s painter was never undermined or challenged, and indeed he himself had adopted English citizenship in June of the previous year. Though he left no real pupils or worthy imitators, his influence upon portraiture at the English Court was profound, for it was in his time that the concept of the royal portrait as a potent image and symbol of the monarch was first truly developed. In Strong’s words ‘the reign of Henry VIII witnesses the birth of modern royal portraiture and sets the pace for the next 300 years’, and for this he was largely responsible.1 This likeness of the king was to be the last royal image to issue from Holbein’s studio, for the following autumn he himself had died from the plague in London. This imposing portrait of the king was also to prove the last official likeness of the King’s reign, for Henry himself was to die only a few years later in 1547.

At this date the King was fifty-one, and he is shown at a time when he was increasingly beset by poor health, and when he would have been recovering from the end of his fifth marriage to Catherine Howard (c. 1523–42), whom he had had executed that same winter. Despite this the King’s presence remains formidable and he is unflinching in his gaze. He is shown at half-length in a full-frontal pose, clad in a vermilion velvet surcoat over a doublet of cloth of gold worked with silver, that Holbein has cleverly adopted as a means of disguising the King’s greatly increased weight, which had been brought on by his illness. In his left hand he holds a staff, which at this date he required to walk with, upon which the initial ‘H’ is inscribed and the date of 1542. There is no evidence that the King sat specifically to Holbein for this portrait type, but, as was usual with Holbein’s working methods, his likeness was undoubtedly evolved from an earlier drawing taken from life, which no longer survives.

Despite his privileged position in the service of the Crown, portraits by Holbein himself of Henry VIII are extremely rare, and even those issuing from his studio in his lifetime uncommon. He is first recorded as the King’s painter in 1536, some four years after he had come to England for the second time, and he is recorded as salaried in the Royal Accounts from 1538 onwards. Even if Henry VIII gave him relatively few commissions, they were all highly important. The first and by far the most important surviving portrait of the King is that painted in 1536 when he was already forty-five (fig. 1). Today in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, this remains Holbein’s undisputed masterpiece from his years in England, and probably the only portrait of Henry made from life, although the original ad vivum drawing which Holbein would undoubtedly have made of the King no longer survives.2 The likeness was re-used by Holbein for his famous mural of the King with his third wife Jane Seymour and his father Henry Tudor and his wife Elizabeth of York, executed in 1537 for the Privy Chamber of King’s Palace in Whitehall.

Although the mural itself was destroyed by fire in 1698, its appearance is known from a seventeenth-century copy made by Remigius van Leemput for Charles II (Royal Collection) and also from the surviving left-hand side of Holbein’s own preparatory cartoon (London, National Portrait Gallery). The Whitehall likeness of the King remains the most potent image of the sovereign, and was copied and repeated in a number of replicas at half or full-length, and in these portraits of the King Holbein had already begun to develop a full-face image of the King’s features. It was used by him again, for example, in his group portrait of Henry VIII with the Barber Surgeons, painted between 1541 and 1543.3 The original (fig. 3) is still preserved in the Barber-Surgeons’ Hall in London, but has been badly damaged, and may have been largely the work of Holbein’s assistants. Holbein’s preparatory cartoon also survives, today in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The fact that the King now looks directly at the viewer rather than to one side as in the Thyssen portrait suggests the possibility of a new sitting to Holbein around 1540–41, but this is unverified. The Castle Howard portrait, with its full-frontal depiction of the King, is most probably linked to this type, and was to be the final image associated with Holbein’s patterns. Versions and dating The Castle Howard portrait of Henry has long been considered to be the prime version of this last image of the King, and indeed has been considered by some scholars to be the work of Holbein himself. Paul Ganz, in his articles on this portrait type, and again in his monograph and catalogue of Holbein’s work, regarded it as the work of Holbein himself and ‘the prototype for the last group of portraits of the King’. This view was not, however, entirely shared by later scholars. Salvini and Grohn were inclined to see it as largely the work of the Holbein studio. Schmid thought the technique close to Holbein but the execution from his workshop at best.

Strong considered it the key portrait in the group, and considered the possibility of Horenbout’s authorship. As the face-pattern coincides with that of the final head in the Whitehall Privy Chamber painting, he also discounted the likelihood of another sitting to Holbein. Rowlands, while accepting the primacy of the Castle Howard version, argued that none of the versions could be considered the work of Holbein himself, and indeed doubted whether they were sufficiently homogenous to be regarded as the products of a workshop pattern. The unique presence of the ‘H’ on the Castle Howard panel (fig. 2) has been much debated, and it has been interpreted to stand for both Henry and Holbein, and even led for a while to the panel’s attribution to Holbein’s fellow court painter the Flemish miniaturist Lucas Horenbout (c. 1490–1544).4 There are a number of versions of this last portrait of the King of varying quality. In addition to the present panel, the best of these include those at Warwick Castle, at Rothesay in the collection of the Marquess of Bute, and that from the collections of the Dukes of Manchester.

Further examples of the composition are to be found at Knole, Melbury House, The National Portrait Gallery (fig. 4), the University of Cambridge, the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, the Moores Foundation at Compton Verney, and at Seaton Delaval, which is dated 1545. A slightly larger pattern, dated 1544 but on canvas and not panel and probably of later date, is at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and a reduced head-and-shoulders copy is at Chatsworth.5 In all, just over a dozen extant versions survive, but while most may have been painted during or very shortly after the King’s lifetime, in the present state of research only two or three can be shown to have been painted while Holbein was still alive. Of all these types, the Castle Howard panel appears to be the earliest reliably dated example of this composition.

Recent dendrochronological analysis of its panels, undertaken by Ian Tyers, shows heartwood rings up to 1533, thus suggesting a felling date around 1540, implying a rapid but possible use of the panel from 1541 onwards, which fits with the date of 1542 inscribed on the picture. Similar analysis has also been undertaken on the Warwick, ex-Manchester, National Portrait Gallery and Seaton Delaval panels. This shows that two other panels could have an early date prior to Holbein’s death in 1543. These are that from the collection of the Dukes of Manchester, which has a likely use from around 1535 onwards, and that at Warwick, which has panels with an early heartwood date of 1487, but as the panels here are trimmed no more accurate dating can be arrived at, as they could have been re-used at any date. Those at Seaton Delaval and in the National Portrait Gallery date respectively from 1545 and 1547 onwards and so are likely to have been painted during the King’s lifetime or very close to it.

The fact that the portraits are of similar size, and that dated examples and recent existing dendrochronological evidence seems to point to a limited period of production, suggest that the final portrait type of the King was indeed produced from a pattern in Holbein’s workshop. The relatively small number of extant versions might similarly suggest that the type was limited, and ceased to be produced not long after the King’s death. However, the nature of Holbein’s workshop is not known, for no documentary source makes any mention of his apprentices or pupils, and the problem of whether Holbein himself organised the repetition of some of his English portraits is unresolved. That said, recent technical analysis suggests that contemporary versions of the Whitehall portrait type now in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Petworth House were painted by artists who had either worked alongside him at Whitehall or who had access to his studio, its cartoons and designs.6 Holbein’s working technique of using tracings meant that copied drawings or traced patterns could be made of the original portraits of important clients such as the King. A drawing of the frontal facial pattern of the King, possibly connected to the Walker Art Gallery portrait (fig.

5) inscribed by the otherwise unrecorded Hans Swartung survives in Munich, and such a drawing or tracing may have been used for the Castle Howard type of the King.7 Holbein certainly seems to have used studio assistants at this date to help him execute the very large panel of Henry VIII with the Barber-Surgeons and it is probable that they were entrusted with its completion after his death in 1543. Hans Holbein the Younger: 'a man very excellent in taking of physionamies' Hans Holbein the Younger: 'a man very excellent in taking of physionamies' Dr Susan Foister Download this lecture Hans Holbein the Younger, portraitist, muralist, designer of jewellery and precious metalware, spent half of his distinguished career in London during the turbulent reign of King Henry VIII. Arriving in 1526 as a German speaking citizen of the city of Basel, Switzerland, he swiftly rose to become a court painter trusted to provide the likenesses of the King's potential Queens.

This lecture will explore Holbein's work as a resident of the City of London, and examine the tensions between artists of the court and the City as well as the synergies between London and the continent which made the Tudor metropolis a magnet for foreign artists seeking fame and fortune. Part of the Mondays at One series on Artists in London No reservations are required for this lecture. It will be run on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the lecture. Susan is Deputy Director and Director of Collections at the National Gallery. She has been Curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting at the National Gallery since 1990. Read More This is part of the series: Artists in London Subjects Hans Holbein the Younger: 'a man very excellent in taking of physionamies' Dr Susan Foister ‘A man very excellent in taking of physionamies’ Dr Susan Foister, National Gallery Towards the end of 1526 a twenty eight year old German immigrant named Hans Holbein the Younger arrived in London.

Born in Augsburg, he had spent the previous decade establishing a successful career as a painter and designer in Basel in Switzerland. Now, in Erasmus’s words ‘the arts were freezing’ – the Reformation was already affecting the livelihood of artists in Germany- and he was seeking work in England. In December Erasmus’s English correspondent, Sir Thomas More, was gloomy about his chances of finding any: ‘I am afraid he will not find England as fruitful and fertile ground as he had hoped’. He promised to do what he could to help. We can imagine Holbein as he crossed the English Channel from Antwerp, where he had stayed on his journey, wondering about how he would manage life in London. How would he deal with negotiations in English? Where would he find working premises? How would he buy his materials and what was available in England? With whom would he be able to forge useful working alliances, and what would the competition be like? The most populated part of London in the sixteenth century was of course the City which you see here on the right.

To the far left is Westminster, where in the following decade Henry VIII would focus on the magnificence of his palace of Whitehall, to which Holbein would make a significant contribution, as we shall see. Out of the picture to the right, further down the Thames, was Greenwich Palace, where Holbein was to make his impressive court debut in 1527. Foreign artists and craftspeople had long settled in London. This is a portrait of a Venetian diplomat and future doge, Marco Barbarigo, painted when he resided in London from the mid 1440s to at least 1450, as the letter addressed to him there which he holds demonstrates. It provides one concrete example of the work of a painter working in London who was clearly trained in the Netherlandish tradition. The art of making life-like portraiture, as we shall see, is a skill which those from abroad may have been better qualified to supply than native London artists.

The guilds were fiercely protective of their native members’ opportunities: in 1492 the ordinances of the painters company of the city of London laid down that no one should employ a painter from outside the city if they could get a freeman of the city for the same price. In 1517 there were riots in protest against foreign workers, especially glaziers from the Low Countries. Those from outside London and from Europe therefore tended to live on the margins of the city: Westminster was popular, because of the ecclesiastical work on offer, and many German speaking goldsmiths settled there. Southwark was another location popular with immigrants including painters. Holbein though is documented in 1541 living in the parish of St Andrew Undershaft in Aldgate Ward. In the same year he became an English denizen or resident – war with France forced alien residents to choose between denizenship or expulsion. Greenwich and beyond: 1526-8 Holbein need not have worried about his future prospects in London, for, in just over two months time, by February 1527, he was at work on the site of Henry VIII’s palace at Greenwich.

At the rate of 4s a day he was by far the best paid artist or craftsman involved in the preparations for the entertaining there of the embassy from France which would take place in May. He was one of several European artists working there alongside a large team of English painters. Holbein and others were engaged in the preparation of two linked spaces: a banqueting house and a theatre or ‘disguising house’. The tasks involved can be traced through the surviving account books, principally one which records in summary the materials used for the banqueting house and the payments to the workers at particular periods, and a similar record for the theatre, which records of precisely which painters and other craftsmen were at work on any day between January and early May 1527. The main focus of work in the banqueting house was the triumphal arch or screen, which was decorated with gilded heads of Roman emperors supplied by the Italian Giovanni da Maiano. On its reverse the arch featured a painting.

This, supplied by ‘Master Hans’, identifiable as Holbein, for the large sum of £ 4, was a representation on canvas of the battle of Therouanne in which the English defeated the French in 1513. Henry VIII amused himself – if not his French guests- by revealing this highly undiplomatic scene as they passed through the arch on their way to the theatre after dinner. The painting may have been similar to this drawing now at Basel. The theatre was dominated by its painted ceiling, which may have resembled this woodcut map of the world by Holbein, made for a publication by Sebastian Munster of 1532; the woodcut may even have been inspired by it. As described in Hall’s chronicle it showed the earth and sea, on which the zodiac, the five girdles and the two poles ‘appeared’ ‘by a cunning making of another cloth’ and also the planetary deities in their ‘houses’. Holbein was paid 4s a day for working with the royal astronomer Nikolaus Kratzer and a group of other painters to produce this painted ceiling.

It is remarkable that Holbein’s talents were recognised so swiftly that he was given a major role at court within such a short time of his arrival in England. How did this propitious start to the German immigrant’s career in England occur? England was not the first country he had tried – in 1524 he had travelled to France and reached the Loire, but returned to Basel. Holbein’s chances of success at Henry VIII’s court must have seemed substantial: not only was he an immensely skilful painter, but his design skills were formidable. In Augsburg he was probably trained in collaborating with sculptors and metalworkers, like his father, there were German metalworkers at the armouries at Greenwich, as well as gilders working on the roof of the theatre there. In Basel Holbein designed woodcuts for the burgeoning printing industry as well as stained glass. He was a master of working on different scales and had enormous powers of invention using perspective and the novel Renaissance decorative motifs which were conquering Northern Europe.

Such skills were eminently adaptable to different environments, and especially to that of the court, where the need for prestigious imagery and artefacts for court ceremonies, court buildings and diplomatic exchange was constant, particularly since, as at Greenwich, much was ephemeral, produced only to be thrown out to make way for the next occasion. But Holbein also had exceptional skills as a portraitist, as well as powerful contacts via Erasmus: these men were likely to have provided introductions to those overseeing the Greenwich festivities, rather than fellow-German speaking craftsmen. Portraits and further opportunities came out of the months there. The portrait of the King’s German astronomer Nicolaus Kratzer, for example, painted in 1528, showing him at work on creating instruments. Kratzer, the king’s astronomer, began an association with Holbein at Greenwich which lasted until the painter’s death in 1543. Their first collaboration was on this manuscript made as a New Year’s gift for King Henry VIII in 1529– Holbein provided the illuminated letters.

Their last collaboration was on this clocksalt designed by Holbein which Sir Anthony Denny presented to Henry VIII as a New Year’s gift in 1544. The inscription is in Kratzer’s hand. We do not know the name of the maker but it would have required a skilled metalworker likely to have been from Northern Europe, and it is highly probable that Kratzer had formed links with German goldsmiths for the creation of such items, which would also have been of great use for Holbein in his career at court. The City and Westminster: work for the King At Greenwich Holbein worked alongside English painters who were members of the Painter-Stainers Company and who also worked constantly at court, on large decorative projects as well as routine maintenance. The Greenwich documents list the teams of Company painters in regular order, with their payments. The painters were led by John Brown, the King’s Painter and head of the London Painter-Stainers Company.

He was responsible for much of the supply of decorative and heraldic painting for use in court ceremonial and at war in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, from flags for the Great Harry and other ships, standards for the army sent to France in 1523 and cloths painted with antique work for a court entertainment in 1524. The fact that the head of the Company was responsible for carrying out painting for the King meant that the Company’s men constantly benefited from lucrative court work, a privilege to be defended against foreign incursion. During Henry VIII’s reign there was constant stream of work to be carried out especially in the 1530s on palaces including Whitehall and Hampton Court. But the work was largely decorative. Holbein could provide more. Those employed by the King wore a livery embroidered with the initials HR. We don’t know who the sitters in these small portraits are or even whether the man was an artist. We don’t know if Holbein himself was required to wear a livery. But by 1532 he was back in London after a further four years in Basel and by 1536 he was referred to as Henry VIII’s painter.

As we’ll see he was working for the King well before that date. The first salary payments of £30 a year survive from 1537 but Holbein may well have been salaried before then. There is unfortunately no document to tell us what the tasks were that the King demanded, but it’s likely that Holbein was valued for both his abilities as a designer and as a portraitist, a remit very different from that of John Brown and his successors. He was greatly in demand on his return. The German Hanseatic merchants employed him as a portraitist and as a decorative artist. This very well preserved portrait of the merchant Hermann Wedigh dated 1532 shows him seated at a desk with a vivid blue background and with gilded lettering giving the year of his age, his 29th. In this way the portrait proclaims its status as a work of art as well as an imitation of reality. The German merchants also employed Holbein to decorate their hall, the Steelyard on the site of Cannon Street station, with decorative paintings, now lost, representing appropriately the triumphs of Riches and Poverty.

Very soon after his return to England it appears that Holbein was already working for King Henry VIII for he produced this design for a table fountain for the king to give to Anne Boleyn at New Year 1534, featuring her coat of arms: their marriage took place in 1533. Very few pieces survive once owned by the King but this clock salt gives an idea of their magnificence and of the fashionability of the Renaissance style designs in which Holbein excelled. In Holbein’s native Augsburg the skills of the artist designer whose work was then produced by associated stained glass makers, goldsmiths and sculptors was becoming paramount, and these skills could be exploited by rulers. Distinctive invention was a mark of prestige, going beyond the mere distinction offered by heraldry. It may thus have been as important for Holbein to create designs for royal goldsmiths work as to produce portraits. In fact very few portraits survive which we can be certain Holbein produced for Henry VIII. This exquisite small portrait of Henry may have been intended as a diplomatic gift, perhaps for the King of France.

This portrait of the infant Edward was given by Holbein himself as a New Year’s gift to the King in 1539. It shows him with a rattle instead of the royal orb of majesty, and with lines in Latin composed by the humanist political writer Richard Morison which flatter the child’s royal father. Next to it you can see another image of Edward with his pet dog surrounded by acorns, a roundel which appears to have been produced as a decorative design for a medal or an engraving on precious stone. Excellence in taking physionamies The drawings of Sir Thomas Elyot and his wife Margaret remind us of how difficult it was to obtain portraits made from sittings with an artist in England before Holbein's arrival. Sir Thomas Elyot wrote in his 'Boke named the Governour' in 1531 'If we will have anything well painted carved or embroidered ... we are 'constrained to resort unto strangers', and urged the apprenticeship of all talented native English boys.

This beautiful drawing, which probably dates from within a couple of years of this statement, is characteristic of those associated with Holbein's second visit to London in the 1530s: the face and upper part of the body are sketched in coloured chalks on paper which has been covered in a flesh coloured preparation, perhaps one of a range of tinted papers prepared in advance so the choice of a particular pink could be calibrated to the observation of the subject’s complexion. The details of the head are sparingly reinforced in black ink, using a pen and brush to suggest differences between the growth of eyebrows, of stubble and of the rather lank hair under the cap. Holbein's arrival in London for the second time effected a transformation in a very short period. If native talent was not being harvested, at least large numbers of courtiers such as Elyot were now acquiring painted images of themselves of extraordinary quality, where none had existed before. In an age when looking in a mirror and seeing an undistorted self-image was not an everyday experience, the effect of owning such a portrait must have been astounding.

Holbein's sitters included the holders of the great offices of state, members of the Privy Council and the Royal Household, the peers of England and their wives, sons and daughters. Holbein portrayed around a quarter of the peerage or their families, a very substantial proportion when it is considered that many did not come to court, because they were too old or too impoverished or disliked the political changes of the time. Nearly one hundred preparatory drawings for painted portraits survive, dating from the two periods, 1526-8 and 1532-43, when Holbein worked in England. The vast majority is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, and most of the portrait drawings are named. Although the inscriptions are not contemporary, we know from a sixteenth century inventory of the drawings that the original identifications were made not long after Holbein's death, and many of these identifications can be corroborated in other ways. In his painted portrait of 1536 Sir Richard Southwell wears a chain of knighthood, roughly sketched in the preparatory drawing for it.

In his will Southwell, who died in 1564, refers to the 'cheine of golde which I myself was wounte to weare in fouldes aboute my neck'. The half-length portrait is apparently simple and restrained, the focus on the face, but the cast shadow and inscription suggesting as in the portrait of the Hanseatic merchant Wedigh, that the painting provides a richly deceptively illusion, one which calls attention to the artist’s skill in making it. In the drawing for the portrait there is unusually an inscription noting the eyes of the sitter were a little yellowish. It is also unusual that Holbein includes the inscription, a rare indication in a portrait drawing of the finished composition. Finally note the carefully deceptive drawing of a scar on Southwell’s neck exactly translated into the finished painted portrait. Importantly the drawing of the head can be shown to be exactly the same size as the painting. We can therefore deduce from this and other examples that tracing was used by Holbein to transfer the likenesses from drawing to panel, probably using carbon coated paper between the two.

Here you see the portrait drawing that was used to produce the portrait of the elderly and somewhat weary seeming archbishop of Canterbury William Warham in 1527, a painted portrait made to be sent to his patron Erasmus in Basel and one which was modelled closely on the image Holbein had made of Erasmus in 1523 and sent to him. Again, the head in the drawing is exactly the same size as that in the painting. What is notable here is that the drawing is made with coloured chalks on off-white paper and is somewhat larger than the drawings on pink-primed paper Holbein was to make on his second visit to London. This miniature probably represents the wife of one of those most successful in the Tudor courtier’s game of power and personal enrichment, Sir Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor, one of the beneficiaries of the wealth from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, who married in 1538 as his second wife Elizabeth Grey. In the drawing of Lady Audley metalpoint describes her jewels, while the restrained ink outline beautifully rims her features .

The notes indicate she is to be dressed in red damask with velvet sleeves as in the portrait miniature - but was there also a full size painted portrait? We do not know. We have only one glimpse of Holbein at work provided by contemporary documents, which indicates clearly that he worked initially from sittings from the life, in the presence of the sitter. This occurs in March 1538, when Holbein, described on this occasion as 'a man very excellent in taking of physionamies', had been sent to Brussels by Henry VIII in order to take the likeness of Christina of Denmark, the sixteen year old widowed Duchess of Milan. The final result of that journey is of course the full-length portrait of Christina in the National Gallery. But would Holbein have taken such a large panel with him over to Brussels? It seems unlikely. Holbein had a sitting with Christina which lasted three hours, long enough probably to make several drawings, none of which survive, but not long enough to paint a full-size picture in oils.

The immediate result we are told was 'very perfight', and evidently delighted Henry on Holbein's return, for we are told that this likeness pleased him so much that 'since he saw it he has been in much better humour than he ever was, making musicians play on their instruments all day long'. We must presume that Holbein then worked up the painting from whatever he had brought back, a drawing of the head, possibly a study of the costume, and perhaps on this occasion a sketch of the hands, for the hands are particularly beautifully portrayed. There may also have been studies of Christina’s black mourning dress perhaps like this one in the British Museum showing front and back of a woman’s dress. Holbein may also have wanted to record the textiles from which her clothing was made, here the black satin which in the portrait he paints so effectively, so annotations such as those we see here in this drawing of a man would have been vital. There would certainly have been a drawing of her face, all important for Henry. It was reported Christina had dimples evident when she smiled: ‘Ther is non in theis parties off parsonage, beawtie, and byrthe lyke unto the Duches off Myllayn.

She is not soo pewre whyt, as was the late Qweyn, whois soal God pardon; but she hathe a syngular good countenaunce, and when she chancesithe to smyl, ther aperithe two pittes in hir cheikes, and wone in hyr chyne, the wiche becommythe hyr right excellently well’. Christina was said to have resembled a certain Mistress Shelton, who may be the woman in the drawing on the left. The drawing Holbein made was probably more like that of Lady Parker you can see on the right. Creating a Composition This portrait of a woman who is almost certainly Anne Lovell was evidently made for her husband, Sir Francis Lovell, perhaps around the time she gave birth to their son and heir. On her lap is a squirrel, the Lovell emblem, and at her shoulder a starling, perhaps a pun on the location of their Norfolk seat, East Harling. No drawings for this portrait survive but one way of finding out a good deal about how Holbein used his drawings to make painted portraits is with the aid of infrared reflectograms.

We can look through the surface paint of the portrait of Anne Lovell and see some slight but beautifully fluid brush drawing delineating folds in the shawl which were not always followed by the surface painting,. Crucially there is no visible drawing in the contours of the face, which must have been traced from a drawing, although minor alterations were made in the course of painting to the hairline and the contour of the cap. We can see here a clear distinction between the lack of alteration to the face, and the major alterations Holbein felt free to make to the rest of the picture. The background, the presence of the squirrel and the starling and even the position of the sitter's hands were the result of later decisions, perhaps some time after the initial sketch for the head. But it seems the portrait drawings were vital in enabling Holbein to transfer with precision to the painted likeness the exact likeness he had produced during a sitting. The Comptroller of the Royal Households and Master of the Revels, Sir Henry Guildford, had overall charge of the festivities at Greenwich, and ultimate responsibility for employing Holbein there in 1527 on his first visit to London.

Holbein showed him in the same year, along with his wife, resplendent in costly gold damask and wearing the collar of the royal Order of the Garter. In Lady Guildford’s portrait her evidently smaller figure is balanced with a highly elegant and fashionable Renaissance column not dissimilar to the pilaster shown in the portrait of Erasmus owned by Archbishop Warham. The decorations and architectural framework of the entertainment halls at Greenwich were all in this highly fashionable ‘antique work’ style. The bulky, richly dressed figure of the powerful Sir Henry already sends a signal of how Holbein will create his iconic portrait of Henry VIII – and possibly alerted the King to the exceptional powers of the artist he would shortly lose for four years. A preparatory drawing for Guildford's portrait also survives, but the correspondence between the outlines of painting and drawing is not so exact here. The face of the painting has been elongated, perhaps in order to flatter slightly the bulky figure that Guildford presented. Neither X-rays nor infra-red photographs reveal alterations to the proportions of Guildford's face during the process of working up the painting, so it is probable that Holbein corrected the portrait by eye as he worked, after transferring the whole drawing to the panel.

– you see here the drawing, painting and infrared superimposed. This drawing in Basel of a half-smiling Lady Guildford was once thought to have been discarded before Holbein made the finished painting from a second, lost preparatory drawing. However, we now know this is not the case: the outlines of painting and drawing correspond precisely, and it is clear from study of the underdrawing that the features of Lady Guildford were merely moved round her face and her smile removed, to be replaced by an expression of solemnity for the painted portrait. It was just such a combination of imaginative and technical skills that was at work in the creation of the image of Henry VIII. In 1537 Holbein produced his masterpiece in painting for the King: the Whitehall wall painting which was burned down along with the palace in 1698. This is the small copy made for Charles II.

The original mural was made for the Privy Chamber, a semi-private room in which the King would receive the most illustrious of guests, and would impress them with this life-size image of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VIII and his father Henry VII with their wives, Elizabeth of York and Henry’s third wife Jane Seymour who was to bear his son Edward VI. The tablet between them is inscribed with Latin verse which asks which King is the greater, the father who reconciled the warring kingdom, or the son who brought about the break with papal Rome and established the English church. Only one drawing survives for this commission -the cartoon for the left hand part of the Whitehall wall painting today in the National Portrait Gallery. This cartoon is of course a different kind of working drawing to those we have seen so far: it served as the final preparatory stage for a much larger painting than usual, on a different surface to the smaller panels, and it was used in a different way. The outlines were pricked and charcoal dust was shaken through the holes onto the surface behind. When the cartoon was removed, the outlines made by the dust could be reinforced and the painting begun.

But there is one very important difference between the cartoon image and the famous image of the finished painting: the position of the heads, in three-quarter face in the cartoon and full-face in the painting, as we see in the copy. The cartoon is actually made up of several pieces of paper joined together, and the figures are themselves cut-outs, stuck down onto the background. They could presumably be more easily positioned in this way, then stuck down in their final attitudes. The head of the cartoon is also a separate piece of paper. The outlines of the head in three-quarter face must then have been transferred to the wall. Only at this point was the decision taken to turn the head to face us - a frontal view Holbein had already used in several earlier portraits. It would have been a relatively simple matter for Holbein to alter the contour of the head slightly, slip the features round Henry's face and manoeuvre them to the front for posterity. In the more usual type of portrait drawing of Jane Seymour the Queen is shown wearing a dress with pleated linen undersleeves and pearls and a pendant jewel around her neck.

But in the full-length portrait of the Queen in the lost wall-painting at Whitehall palace, in which she represents the only Tudor Queen of the current generation to have born a living son, she wears far grander jewellery and clothes although her pose is exactly the same: her gown is of cloth of gold, her sleeves of ermine and she wears massed gold chains across her bodice. And in the portrait at Vienna, which is exactly the same size as the drawing, her ensemble is different again: her undersleeves are of looped gold brocade and her oversleeves of gold net over red velvet, her necklace not plain pearls but a more elaborate arrangement of pearls and precious stones matching her headdress. Her girdle resembles the jewels listed in her inventory as pots of gold and lapis lazuli. These different parts of her costume would in life have been assembled and pinned on separately, therefore it was a simple matter for sleeves and jewels to be upgraded from drawing to the sumptuous textiles of this portrait and the grandeur of the wall painting.

The Queen's presence, once the drawing was made, was not required, and indeed we cannot be certain that she was still alive when the wall painting was completed in 1537. The extent to which large-scale compositions called for such maneouvres can be seen in Holbein's portrait of the family of Sir Thomas More, or at least in the studies for it, for the painting itself, which was on a fine linen canvas, was destroyed in the eighteenth century: this is an annotated working drawing, probably an intermediate stage at which Holbein had settled on the composition, but needed to discuss it further with More, its commissioner. Did Holbein then have the More family sitting before him to draw, apparently at family prayers? There is very good evidence that he did not. Several individual studies for the portraits of the Mores survive at Windsor. The wonderfully bold chalk study of John More shows him much as he appears in the group: but Holbein has removed his hat. The drawing of Anne Cresacre gives the game away completely: she is clearly seated in a chair, but in the group Holbein makes her stand.

Holbein might take the appearances of his sitters from the life, but their poses and indeed the composition of a large painting such as this, might be quite imaginary. Like other artists, Holbein may not have felt obliged to use the sitters themselves for models when trying to work out how they should look at full-length. In fact a great deal could be added or assembled or altered later as we have seen: jewellery and costumes certainly, but also bodies and even hands as well as backgrounds. Virtually all Holbein's surviving portrait studies show only the upper part of the sitter's bodies, and often only heads and shoulders; very few include hands, hardly any have any indication of background. But although most drawings are slightly cut it is clear that the head is the principal focus, and it is this which Holbein worked up in the sitter's presence, in the very first stage of the encounter between sitter and artist. In 1533 Holbein painted one of the most extraordinary works of his career: the double full-length portrait of Jean de Dinteville and his friend George de Selve.

Dinteville was the French ambassador in 1533, bored with waiting on the coronation of Anne Boleyn and then on the birth of her child, the future Elizabeth I. De Selve was his friend, on a short secret mission probably from April to June, which cheered him. The painting commemorated the visit and the friendship and was destined for Dinteville’s French chateau of Polisy. The painting pivots between the distorted shape of the skull in the centre, which clicks into shape if the viewer stands on the right and the half hidden image of the crucifix top left, the hope of resurrection. Between the two men is an array of astronomical instruments and objects of earthly utility. Especially notable are the lute with its broken string, and the Lutheran hymnbook next to de Selve: his attempts to reconcile the deep divisions in Christendom between Catholics and Lutherans may have inspired their presence.

The two diplomats in the 'Ambassadors' look uncannily as though they are posing for the camera, but such a large composition, (for which, unfortunately, no drawings survive), could hardly be realised without a great deal of work in constructing it: can we really believe that the two men posed at the same time in a room just like this and with a piece of furniture loaded with globes, musical instruments and astronomical instruments arranged between them? Were any of these objects even their own possessions? Even that seems unlikely. The instruments were almost certainly owned by Holbein's friend, the King's astronomer and a fellow German, Nikolaus Kratzer, who is shown in Holbein's portrait of 1528 in the Louvre making one of them, and Holbein may well have kept detailed drawings of the instruments to use again.

The terrestrial globe appears to have been based on a real globe, perhaps again Kratzer's, but here Holbein has edited the original and inscribed on the map of France not only the area, Burgundy, in which Jean de Dinteville (whom we saw on the left) resided, but also Polisy, the location of his chateau, where the painting subsequently hung. The whole composition was surely inspired by Holbein’s woodcut for the Dance of Death, a series of small exquisitely designed narratives of the ways in which death carries off those in the midst of life when they were least expecting it. Here, in the final woodcut at the end of the book, a man and woman stand to either side of a shield with a decaying death’s head and above bony arms reaching up to bring down a rock to smash an hourglass, a device for measuring time. Painting and woodcut demonstrate the extraordinary abilities Holbein brought to London: as an artist, as a designer and as a man who could capture likeness. They also reminds us that his career was cut short in the autumn of 1543 when he died suddenly, probably from the plague which was then raging in London.

© Dr Susan Foister, 2016

Question: What was the name of the painter who was the son of Hans Holbein the Senior?
Answer: Hans Holbein the Younger