Holbein, Hans, the Younger 1497-1543
German painter

Born in Augsburg, he was the son of Hans Holbein, the Elder (c.1460-1524), who was also a painter of merit. He studied under his father, and was influenced by the work of Hans Burgkmair. He worked in Basle in about 1516, but did not settle there till 1520. During this interval he was painting portraits at Zurich and Lucerne, including those of Burgomaster Meier and his wife, Erasmus and Philip Melanchthon. In 1519, he painted his Noli Me Tangere (c.1522, Royal Collection) and his portrait of Erasmus (1523, on loan to National Gallery, London), but he largely concentrated on designs for woodcuts, including illustrations for various editions of Martin Luther's Old and New Testaments (1522 and 1523). His most important woodcuts, however - the Dance of Death series and the Old Testament cuts - were not issued till 1538. He visited England at the end of 1526, where he began his great series of portraits of eminent Englishmen of the time, such as Sir Thomas More (1527, Frick Collection, New York). On his return to Basle (1529) he painted the group of his wife and two children, now in the museum there, and in 1530 resumed work in the council hall (pictures now destroyed). In 1532 he again visited London, where he painted several portraits for the German merchants of the Hanseatic League, including the exquisite Derick Born (1533, Royal Collection). The portrait group, The Ambassadors (1533, National Gallery, London), the portraits of Thomas Cromwell, and the miniatures of Henry and Charles Brandon, sons of the Duke of Suffolk, are attributed to this period. In 1536 he was appointed painter to Henry VIII, and executed a mural painting of him and Queen Jane Seymour with Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1698 (cartoon in the National Portrait Gallery, London) and miniatures of outstanding quality, such as Mrs Pemberton (1536, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). He also painted Kristina of Denmark (a prospective wife for Henry) in 1538 (National Gallery, London), and Anne of Cleves, at Cleves in 1539 (miniature in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). One of the most charming of his paintings, Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (of uncertain date) is now in the National Gallery, London. His last work was Henry VIII granting a Charter to the Barber-Surgeons, still in their guildhall. He died of the plague in London.

Bibliography: Alfred Woltmann, Holbein and His Times (1872)