Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg, Bavaria, around 1497 and died in London in 1543, between October 8 and November 29, is a painter and engraver of the Northern Renaissance, initially a subject of the Holy Roman Empire , then citizen of Basel (former Swiss Confederation). One of his best-known works is The Ambassadors, painted in 1533 and depicting two envoys, one from the nobility, the other from the clergy. He particularly excelled in portraits, such as that of the English King Henry VIII.
Biography

Son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder, he is the younger brother of the painter Ambrosius Holbein (c.1494 - c.1519), with whom he studied in his father's workshop which was then one of the most famous and sought-after in the city. Hans and his brother Ambrosius also undoubtedly benefited from the teaching of their uncle, Hans Burgkmair, one of the greatest German painters of the time3.

In 1515, he went to Basel, a center of humanism. From 1516 to 1526. He created portraits for the upper middle class merchants, in particular that of the Meyer Spouses, Jakob Meyer being then mayor of the city. In 1517, in Lucerne, the municipal administration recommended small decorative works and he created frescoes, now destroyed, for the residence of the mayor Jacob von Hertenstein, for which he probably called on his father. The preparatory drawings show innovations that evoke a trip to Milan with his uncle Hans Burgkmair during the year 1518.

In 1519, back in Basel, he was made a master by the Guild of Painters and signed the Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach, humanist, man of letters and jurist. Amerbach was an old friend of Erasmus and introduced him to Holbein four years later. The same year, he married Elsbeth, a wealthy widow. In 1520, he obtained Basel citizenship and in 1521 began the now lost frescoes of the Great Council Hall. It was also the year his son Philipp was born. In 1523, he met Erasmus of Rotterdam who had lived in Basel since 1521 and made two portraits of him, which later became his pass to England where Erasmus had them sent to English friends3.

During a trip to France in 1524, he discovered Leonardo da Vinci. There he learned his famous “three pencils” technique, consisting of executing portraits in black ink, red chalk and white chalk4. During this period, he also made numerous trips to Italy, Rome and Florence. Influenced by Matthias Grünewald, his style opened up to the new conceptions of the Italian Renaissance. He also works on religious compositions, wall decorations, stained glass cartoons and engravings.
Design for the Hourglass Clock (Clocksalt) for Anthony Denny, 1543. pencil and black ink on paper with gray and red washes on the compass, British Museum, London5.

In 1526, fleeing the Reformation, he left for London, recommended by Erasmus to Thomas More. He returned to Basel in 1528, where he bought a house, after having lived in England in an atmosphere of intellectual and spiritual freedom which he would miss in Basel. The city was then prey to fanaticism and religious intolerance which caused Erasmus to flee and take refuge in Fribourg.
Christina of Denmark
1538, London

He therefore returned to London in 1533. But here too Thomas More has fallen from grace and freedom of spirit is no longer there. Its sponsors are no longer humanists but rich merchants who want to be represented with all the attributes of their power3. This period constitutes the peak of his career. He designed a triumphal arch for Anne Boleyn's entry into London and painted the painting The Ambassadors in 1533. This last one is special. Indeed, part of this work is produced using the anamorphosis process. Thus, if the gaze is positioned in relation to the right edge of the painting, we see a human skull appear in the middle of the two charactersa. The presence of this skull makes this painting a memento mori, which reminds us of humility. The two characters represented are invited to remember that they are mortal like everyone else.

In 1536, appointed painter-valet to Henry VIII, he quickly became the official painter of the English court. Between 1538 and 1539, he traveled to Europe to portray the princesses who were candidates for marriage to Henry VIII after the death of Jeanne Seymour. In 1540, the king married Anne of Cleves.

In 1543, between October 7 and November 29, in full glory, he died of illness at the age of approximately 46. Karel van Mander declared at the beginning of the 17th century that Holbein died of the plague, but this assertion should be taken with caution: it is questioned by several historians. Wilson, for example, doubts this story due to the presence of Holbein's friends at his bedside at the time of his death and Peter Claussen suggests that he died instead of an infection6. His will tells us of the existence of two natural sons, whom he generously endowed3.

Looking behind appearances for striking facial expressions, he seeks to bring together Gothic traditions and new humanist trends.
Reception
The Body of Christ Dead in the Tomb
1521, Basel

According to Anna Dostoyevskaya, who gave a detailed report of the incident, and who feared a new epileptic attack on this occasion, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a great admirer of Holbein, was very shaken when he saw in Basel, in June 1867, the painting The Body of Christ Dead in the Tomb; according to him, “this painting can make you lose faith7. » The painting disturbed him so much that he gave a brief description of it in The Idiot8.
Works
In Basel

The Basel City Art Museum has the world's largest collection of works by the Holbein family.
The ambassadors
1533, London

    1516: Portraits of Jacob Meyer and Dorothée Kannengiesser, tempera on panel, 38.5 × 31 cm each, Kunstmuseum (Basel)3
    1519: Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach, tempera on panel, 48 × 35 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna3
    1521-22: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, tempera on panel, 30.5 × 200 cm, Kunstmuseum (Basel)
    1521-1522 Oberried Altarpiece, tempera on panel: Adoration of the Shepherds and Adoration of the Magi, 231 × 110 cm, Friborg dome
    1522: The Madonna of Solothurn Oil on lime wood, 143.3 × 104 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Solothurn
    1523:
        Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, oil on wood, 42 × 32 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris3
        Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, tempera on paper, mounted on pine wood, 37 × 30 cm, Kunstmuseum (Basel)9
    1526: Lais of Corinth, oil on lime wood, 37 × 27 cm, Kunstmuseum (Basel)10
    1526-1528: Lady with the Squirrel and the Starling, oil on oak, 56 × 39 cm, National Gallery, London4
    1526 taken up again in 1529:
        The Virgin and Child with the family of Mayor Meyer, altarpiece, oil on wood, 146.5 × 102 cm, Darmstadt, Schlossmuseum11
    1527:
        William Warham (1457-1532), Archbishop of Canterbury in 1504, wood, 82 × 66 cm, Musée du Louvre12
        Sir Thomas More, oil on panel, 75 × 60 cm, Frick Collection, New York13
        Anne Cresacre, daughter-in-law of Thomas More, black chalk and pastel on paper, 37.9 × 26.9 cm, Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
        Nicholas Kratzer, oil on canvas, 81.9 × 64.8 cm, Louvre museum3
        Portrait of Sir Bryan Tuke, oil on panel, 49 × 38 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
    1528:
        The Painter's Wife with her two eldest children, tempera, 77 × 64 cm, Kunstmuseum (Basel)3
        Portrait of Thomas Godsalve and his son John Godsalve, tempera on panel, 35 × 36 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden11
    1532: Portrait of Georg Gisze, oil on wood, 96.3 × 85.7 cm, Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)
    1532: Portrait of a member of the Wedigh family, probably Hermann Wedight, oil on wood (2 Baltic oak boards), 42.2 × 32.4 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
    1532-1533: Thomas Cromwell, oil on panel, 78 × 64 cm, Frick Collection, New York13
    1533:
        The Ambassadors, oil on panel, 207 × 209 cm, London, National Gallery3
        Portrait of Dirk Tybis, tempera on panel, 48 × 35 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna3
        Portrait of Robert Cheseman, 1533, tempera on panel, 59 × 63 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague11
    1534-1535: Portrait of a man with a lute, tempera on wood, 43 × 43 cm, Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)
    1536: Portrait of Sir Richard Southwell, oil on wood, 47.5 × 38 cm, Florence, Uffizi Gallery.

At the English court

    1536: Portrait of Jane Seymour, Queen of England, oak panel, 65 × 51 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna14
    1536-1537:
        Portrait of Henry VIII, tempera on panel, 26 × 19 cm, Thyssen3 Collection
        Portrait of Henry VIII, oil on wood, 237.7 × 134.6 cm, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
        Portrait of Jeanne Seymour, tempera on panel, 26 × 19 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Would be a replica of the original kept in Vienna by the artist and the workshop11.
    1538:
        Portrait of Christina of Denmark, tempera on panel, 178 × 81 cm, National Gallery (London)
        Portrait of Jean Bugenhagen, Chantilly, Condé museum
        Sir Henry Wyatt, Louvre Museum15
        Portrait of Edward VI, Prince of Wales at two years old, tempera on panel, 57 × 44 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington11
    1539:
        Portrait of Anne of Cleves, Queen of England, fourth wife of Henry VIII, 1539, vellum on canvas, 65 × 48 cm, Louvre Museum
        Thomas Howard, oil on panel, 81 × 61 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
    1539-1540: Henry VIII, tempera on panel, 88 × 75 cm, National Gallery of Ancient Art (Rome)3
    circa 1540: portrait of Jane Pemberton Small
    1541: Portrait of a young merchant, oak panel, 46 × 35 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna14
    1542: Self-portrait, colored pastels, 32 × 26 cm, Uffizi Museum, Florence3
    1543:
        Portrait of Anthony of Lorraine, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
        Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales, tempera on panel, diam. 32.4 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
        Doctor John Chambers, physician to Henry VIII, oak panel, 58 × 40 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna14

Engravings

In 1526, he produced a series of 41 wood engravings: “Danse macabre”. They will be published without text in 1530, then in 1538, in a collection entitled “Simulacra and historiated faces of death”; in 1545 the engravings, originally numbering 41, were increased to 53 and accompanied by Latin sentences and French moral quatrains. These are not farandoles where death leads its victims towards their end and the scenes do not take place in cemeteries either, death bursts into daily life, it interrupts everyone's activities, whether they It concerns the work of the merchant, the activity of the judge, the doctor or even the knight. Death surprises men in their occupations or in the pleasures that life offers; it makes no distinction of order or class. However, always aggressive and mocking, Holbein's "death" takes on the appearance of a vigilante, the artist's work has a subversive side insofar as he denounces the abuses of power, the religious authorities who take advantage of their status and the power of the richest. Certainly, he shows that death affects everyone but with irony and ferocity he ridicules the powerful (in the religious and political domain) by denouncing their failings or their failures to respect the rank they must hold or the oaths taken.

    Gray, Baron-Martin museum: Portrait of a woman, engraving, 40 × 28 cm.

Drawings

    Christ at Rest, 1519, pen and brush drawing on brown paper, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin16
    Movement study of a female body, 1535, pen and brush drawing, Kunstmuseum (Basel)16
    Portrait of a young man, black and sanguine stone, 30 × 19 cm, Ian Woodner Collection, New York17

Gallery

    Thomas More 1527, Frick Collection
    Thomas More
    1527, Frick Collection
    William Warham 1527 (or 1528), Louvre Museum
    William Warham
    1527 (or 1528), Louvre Museum
    Erasmus 1528, Basel
    Erasmus
    1528, Basel
    Sir Brian Tuke 1528, Washington
    Sir Brian Tuke
    1528, Washington
    Georg Giese 1532, Berlin
    George Giese
    1532, Berlin
    Robert Cheseman 1533, The Hague
    Robert Cheseman
    1533, The Hague
    Portrait of a musician 1534, Berlin
    Portrait of a musician
    1534, Berlin
    Thomas Howard 1539, Windsor Castle
    Thomas Howard
    1539, Windsor Castle
    Anne of Cleves 1539, Louvre Museum
    Anne of Cleves
    1539, Louvre Museum
    Henry VIII 1539, Rome
    Henry VIII
    1539, Rome
    Portrait of a young merchant 1541, Vienna
    Portrait of a young merchant
    1541, Vienna
    Anthony of Lorraine 1543, Berlin
    Anthony of Lorraine
    1543, Berlin

Notes and references
Notes

    In front view of the painting, this skull is at ground level, in an oblique position, as if it were flat and seen in profile.

References

Collection of self-portraits from the Uffizi Museum, (it) Wolfram Prinz (et aut.), “La collezione di autoritratti: Catalogo generale”, in Gallerie degli Uffizi, Gli Uffizi, Florence, Centro Di, 1980 (1st ed. 1979), 1211 p. (ISBN 88-7038-021-1), p. 899.
“Holbein, Hans (the Younger)” [archive], on Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (accessed February 17, 2022).
Giuliana Zucoli Bellantoni, “Holbein”, Regards sur la Peinture, no. 39, 1988.
Erika Langmuir, National Gallery: the Guide, Flammarion, 1997, 335 p. (ISBN 2-08-012451-X), p. 122-123.
Foister, 76–77. A clock salt was a complex instrument, including a clock, hourglass, sundial and compass ➜ In French a 'clocksalt' was a complex instrument, including a clock, an hourglass and a compass.
Wilson, 277; Claussen, 53.
Myriam Kissel, Julien Green and Fedor Dostoyevsky: a mystical writing, Harmattan, 2012 [archive]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, Part II, chapter 4. Gallimard, La Pléidade, p. 265-266.
Manuel Jover, “Holbein the Younger, from Basel to London”, Connaissance des Arts, no. 637, April 2006, p. 34.
Exhibition calendar, “Russia, Moscow”, Connaissance des Arts, no. 638, May 2006, p. 169
Sylvie Blin, “The Portraits of Hans Holbein”, Connaissance des Arts, no 608, September 2003, p. 6-15
Vincent Pomarède, 1001 paintings in the Louvre: From Antiquity to the 19th century, Musée du Louvre Editions, 2005, 308 p. (ISBN 2-35031-032-9), p.487
(en) Bernice Davidson, Paintings from the Frick Collection, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York, 1990 (ISBN 0-8109-3710-7), p. 34-37
Wolfgang Prohaska, The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: Painting, CH Beck/Scala Books, 2001 (ISBN 3-406-47459-4), p. 102-103
Nicolas d'Archimbaud, Louvre, Editions du Club France Loisirs, 1998, 335 p. (ISBN 2-7441-1984-9), p.154
Exhibitions, “Hans Holbein the Younger in the spotlight in Basel”, L’Objet d’Art, no. 315, July-August 1997, p.16-17

    Véronique Prat, Secret masterpieces from major private collections, Albin Michel, 1988 (ISBN 2-226-03427-7), p.170

Appendices
Bibliography

    Ackroyd, Peter. The Life of Thomas More. London: Chatto & Windus, 1998. (ISBN 1-85619-711-5).
    Erna Auerbach. Tudor Artists: A Study of Painters in the Royal Service and of Portraiture on Illuminated Documents from the Accession of Henry VIII to the Death of Elizabeth I. London: Athlone Press, 1954. OCLC 1293216. [archive]
    Oskar Bätschmann and Pascal Griener, Hans Holbein, Gallimard, 1997, (ISBN 2070115542)
    Beyer, Andreas. "The London Interlude: 1526–1528." In Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532, Müller, et al., 66–71. Munich: Prestel, 2006. (ISBN 3-7913-3580-4).
    Borchert, Till-Holger. “Hans Holbein and the Literary Art Criticism of the German Romantics.” In Hans Holbein: Paintings, Prints, and Reception, edited by Mark Roskill & John Oliver Hand, 187–209. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2001. (ISBN 0-300-09044-7).
    Brooke, Xanthe, and David Crombie. Henry VIII Revealed: Holbein's Portrait and his Legacy. London: Paul Holberton, 2003. (ISBN 1-903470-09-9).
    Buck, Stephanie. Hans Holbein, Cologne: Könemann, 1999, (ISBN 3-8290-2583-1).
    Calderwood, Mark. "The Holbein Codes: An Analysis of Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors". Newcastle (Au): University of Newcastle, 2005. Retrieved November 29, 2008.
    Claussen, Peter. “Holbein’s Career between City and Court.” In Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532, Müller et al., 46–57. Munich: Prestel, 2006. (ISBN 3-7913-3580-4).
    Foister, Susan. Holbein in England. London: Tate: 2006. (ISBN 1-85437-645-4).
    Foister, Susan; Ashok Roy; & Martyn Wyld. Making & Meaning: Holbein's Ambassadors. London: National Gallery Publications, 1997. (ISBN 1-85709-173-6).
    Ganz, Paul. The Paintings of Hans Holbein: First Complete Edition. London: Phaidon, 1956. OCLC