Hans Holbein the Younger

Self-portrait around 1542

Residential house in Basel

Information board

Holbein's portrait 1519 of his wife Elsbeth Binsenstock on the 20 Reichsmark banknote 1924

The artist's family (his wife Elsbeth with their two children Philipp and Katherina), around 1528, today the Kunstmuseum Basel

Hans Holbein the Younger (* 1497 or 1498 probably in Augsburg ; † November 29, 1543 in London ) was a German painter . In a self-portrait that he painted shortly before his death, he describes himself as a Basel resident ; he received the guild and citizenship rights of the city of Basel in 1519. He is one of the most important Renaissance painters. His best-known work is the painting The Ambassadors from 1533. It depicts two ambassadors who represent the nobility and the clergy . However, he mainly painted portraits of important personalities, such as the English King Henry VIII.

Life

Holbein came from an important family of artists who have been in Ravensburg since the 13th century .

His father Hans Holbein the Elder was one of the well-known painters of his time and worked primarily in Augsburg. His uncle Sigmund Holbein was also artistically active, but little is known about his work and work. One of his brothers, Ambrosius Holbein , was also a painter.

The brothers received their artistic training in their father's workshop. They moved to Basel together in 1515 , hoping to find a good income as illustrators in the then flourishing book printing town. Hans Holbein a. a. for Hans Froben and illustrated books such as Praise the Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Utopia by Thomas More . Hans Holbein stayed in Lucerne around 1517–1519 for artistic work. In the year 1519 the death of his brother Ambrosius and the marriage of Hans Holbein the Elder probably fell. J. with Elsbeth Binsenstock, four years older than him, the widow of a Basel tanner , which enabled him to join the Basel painters' guild ( Zunft zum Himmel ) and become a citizen of Basel in 1520 . She gave birth to four children, Philipp, Katharina, Johannes and Küngold. Holbein immortalized the wife and the first two children in his famous portrait of Holbein's wife with the two older children (1528, Kunstmuseum Basel ), which is considered to be one of the first portraits ever made by an artist of his own family.

At that time, the Dutch philologist and philosopher Erasmus von Rotterdam, whom Holbein portrayed most often, also lived in Basel. In Basel, Holbein also created his two famous Madonna pictures, the so-called Darmstadt Madonna (1525/1526, since 2012 as part of the Würth Collection in the Johanniterkirche , Schwäbisch Hall ) and the Solothurn Madonna (1522, Kunstmuseum Solothurn ). In 1521 he was commissioned to paint the large council chamber in Basel's town hall .

In 1523/1524 Holbein went to France . He drew two statues of princes at the ducal palace Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges im Berry . It remains unclear whether he aspired to the courtly sphere or wanted to benefit from the patronage of King Francis I. Holbein stayed in England for new fields of activity from 1526 to 1528. In 1528 he returned to Basel as a well-known and sought-after painter for four years, where he acquired two houses. After the Protestant iconoclasm in 1529 and the associated ban on religious representations, he received fewer and fewer commissions. In 1532 he finally left Basel for England . He resisted the attempt by the Basel Council to lure him back to Basel in 1538 with an annual salary of 50 gulden .

In London, through the mediation of Erasmus, he made the acquaintance of the humanist Thomas More, who procured him various commissions and also introduced him to King Henry VIII . In 1533 he designed the decorations for the king's wedding to Anne Boleyn . In 1536 he became the king's court painter .

“His [the king's] affection for him was weak. When a lord once complained to the king about an insult to the painter [...] the king replied: 'Know that I can make seven lords out of seven peasants in one minute, like you, but that I can make seven lords of yours Can't hit a single Holbein. '"

- after J. Wiese

Heinrich - looking for a bride - sent Holbein back to the mainland in 1539 to take care of Christina of Denmark and the two daughters of Duke Johann III in Kleve . to draw. He liked the picture of Anna von Kleve very much and decided to marry her. But since the real Anna seemed far less beautiful to him than the painted one, Holbein fell out of favor with him. Although he remained court painter, he was never again allowed to paint a member of the royal family.

The work carried out for the Stalhof and its members also belonged to the period of his second stay in England : portraits of at least five merchants, including the famous Georg Gisze from 1532, allegorical monumental images (triumphs of wealth and poverty, 1532/1535), festival decorations and designs for silver work.

Hans Holbein the Younger died in 1543 of the plague that was rampant in London at the time .

Works (selection)

image	title	year	Size / material	Exhibition / collection / owner
	Portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen	1516	28.1 × 19.0 cm, silver pencil on white primed paper, red chalk and traces of black pencil	Kunstmuseum Basel , Kupferstichkabinett
	Double portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen and Dorothea Kannengiesser : Portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen	1516	38.5 × 31.0 cm, oil and tempera on linden wood	Art Museum Basel
	Double portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen and Dorothea Kannengiesser: Portrait of Dorothea Kannengießer	1516	38.5 × 31.0 cm, oil and tempera on linden wood	Art Museum Basel
	Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach	1516	28.5 × 27.5 cm, oil on fir wood	Kunstmuseum Basel , Amerbach-Kabinett
	The body of Christ in the tomb	1521/1522	30.5 × 200 cm, oil and tempera on linden wood	Kunstmuseum Basel , Amerbach-Kabinett
	Solothurn Madonna	1522	143.5 × 104.9 cm, oil and tempera on linden wood	Solothurn Art Museum
	Writing Erasmus from Rotterdam	1523	43 × 33 cm, oil on linden wood	Louvre , Paris
	Lais of Corinth	1526	34.6 × 26.8 cm, tempera on limewood	Art Museum Basel
	The dance of death	1526	6.4 × 4.8 cm, series of 41 woodcuts
	Venus and Cupid	1526	34.5 × 26 cm, tempera on wood	Art Museum Basel
	Portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen	around 1525/1526	38.3 × 27.5 cm, black and colored chalks, lead pencils and blind-scratched lines on the contours; Base tinted light gray	Kunstmuseum Basel , Kupferstichkabinett
	Madonna of the mayor Jacob Meyer zum Hasen ( Darmstadt Madonna ) see also Dresdner Holbeinstreit	1526	146.5 × 102.0 cm, softwood (?)	since 2011 Würth Collection
	Design for the family portrait of Thomas More	1526-1527	38.9 × 52.4 cm, pen and brush (black) over preliminary chalk drawing; Lettering and individual motifs in brown ink	Kunstmuseum Basel , Kupferstichkabinett
	Portrait of a lady with a squirrel	1526-1528	56 × 38.8 cm, oil on oak	National Gallery , London
	Portrait of Thomas More	1527	74.2 × 59 cm, oak wood	Frick Collection , New York
	Portrait of a young lady	after 1528	20.8 × 14.2 cm, oil on paper, relined on fine linen, stretched on a stretcher	Collection Vicomte Guilhermoz in Paris; around 1930 Charles Albert de Burlet in Berlin; Féral, Paris; around 1932 Van Diemen, New York; 1932–1945 owned by Helen Swift Neilson, Chicago; 1945 Metropolitan Museum in New York; privately owned in Germany since 1975
	Thomas Cromwell	1532	76 × 61 cm, oil on panel	Frick Collection , New York City
	Portrait of Georg Gisze	1532	96.3 × 85.7 cm, oil on oak	Gemäldegalerie Berlin
	Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ( The Envoys )	1533	207 × 210 cm, oil on oak	National Gallery , London
	Robert Cheseman	1533	58.8 × 62.8 cm, wood	Mauritshuis , The Hague
	The stone thrower	approx. 1532-1534	20.3 × 12.2 cm, drawing on paper	Kunstmuseum Basel , Kupferstichkabinett
	Jane Seymour	1536–1537 (?)	65.4 × 40.7 cm, oil on oak	Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna
	Henry VIII	circa 1537	28 × 20 cm, oil on oak	Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
	Christina of Denmark	1538	179 × 83 cm, oil on oak	National Gallery , London
	Sir Thomas Parry	1538-1540	25.4 × 18.6 cm, pen and chalk drawing	Royal Collection , Windsor Castle
	Thomas Howard , 3rd Duke of Norfolk , Earl Marshal of England	1539	80.3 × 61.6 cm, oak wood	Royal Collection , Windsor Castle
	Portrait of Anna von Kleve	1538-1539	65 × 48 cm, parchment on canvas	Louvre , Paris
	Edward Prince of Wales , later King Edward VI.	1539	56.8 × 44 cm, oil on panel	National Gallery of Art , Washington
	Portrait of Henry VIII	after 1539-1540	88.2 × 75 cm, tempera on wood	Palazzo Barberini , Rome
	Portrait Thomas Wyatt	1540-1542	32 × 32 cm, oil on round plate	Acquired from Christie's in 1974 by Christopher Gibbs for £ 2,800 . Offered by Sotheby’s in 2006 , but not sold. Authenticity of Tate Britain doubted. 2007 at the art fair The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht for 10 million US dollars . Authenticity confirmed by the TEFAF committee. Further whereabouts unclear.
	De Vos van Steenwijk	1541	47.6 cm × 36.2 cm, oil on panel	Gemäldegalerie Berlin
	Portrait of Anton the Good , Duke of Lorraine	1543	51 × 37 cm, tempera on wood	Gemäldegalerie Berlin

• The alphabet de la mort de Hans Holbein: entouré de bordures du XVIe siècle et suivi d'anciens poemes français sur le sujet des trois mors et des trois vis. Tross, Paris 1856, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-79209
• Images of death. Einsle, Viennae 1890, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-61565
• The celebrated Hans Holbeins alphabet of death: illustrated with old borders engraved on wood with latin sentences and english quatrains. Tross, Paris 1856, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-73843
• The dance of death. Coxhead, London 1816, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76376
• The dance of death: exhibited in elegant engravings on wood, with a dissertation on the several representations of that subject, but more particulary on those ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein. Pickernig, London 1833, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-79209
• The dances of death, through the various stages of human life: wherein the capriciousness of that tyrant is exhibited in forty-six copper plates; done from the original designs…; to which are prefixed, descriptions of each plate in French and English, with the scripture text from which the designs were taken. Scott & Ostell, London 1803, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-79209
• La danse des morts à Bâle. Wentzel, Wissembourg 1846, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-68330
• La danse des morts à Bâle. Hasler, Basel circa 1830, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-67017
• The dead = || dantz / through all strands || vnnd gender of people /: in it they come from and end nothingness and mortality as to be seen in a mirror for educated and adorned with beautiful figures. Birckmann, Arnold the Elder Ä. (Erben), Cologne 1560, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-38251
• Hans Holbein's Pictures of Death: reproduced from the proofs and the Lyons edition of 1547 in the Kunsthalle zu Hamburg. Commeter, Hamburg 1897, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-73305
• Hans Holbein's initial letters with the dance of death. Dieterich, Leipzig 1911, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-38107
• Hans Holbein's initial letters with the dance of death: after Hans Lutzelburger's orig. in the Dresdner Kabinet. Dieterich, Göttingen 1849, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76070
• Hans Holbein's dance of death. Hirth, Munich 1884, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76946
• Hans Holbein's Todtentanz: in 53 sheets faithfully lithographed from the woodcuts. Schlotthauer, Munich 1832, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76587
• Holbenii Pictoris alphabetum mortis: complete in 24 woodcuts based on the Dresden originals. Heberle, Cologne 1849, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76084
• Icones Mortis: Dvodecim Imaginibus praeter priores, totidémque inscriptionibus, praeter epigrammata è Gallicis à Georgio AEmylio in Latinum versa, cumulatae; Qvas his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Basel, 1554, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-43732
• Oeuvre De Jean Holbein Ou Recueil De Gravures D'Après Ses Plus Beaux Ouvrages: Accompagnés D'Explications Historiques Et Critiques Et De La Vie De Ce Fameux Peintre. Mechel, Basel 1780, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-64384
• The dance of death. Wittwer, Stuttgart circa 1860, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-64185
• The dance of death: a poem. Leo, Leipzig 1831, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-58471
• The dance of death or the triumph of death: after the original woodcuts by Hans Holbein. Robrahn, Magdeburg 1836, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-78627 .
• The dance of death: forty woodcuts. Holbein-Verlag, Munich 1914, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-77767
• The dance of death: forty woodcuts. Fischer & Frauke, Berlin 1907, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-59445
• The story of Job, in several presentations. (inner wing door of an altar)
  • The rich man in his good life. (Counterpart)

literature

• Oskar Bätschmann: Hans Holbein the Elder J. CH Beck, Munich 2010.
• Bodo Brinkmann (Ed.): Hans Holbein and the change in the art of the 16th century. Brepols, Turnhout 2005, ISBN 2-503-51604-1 .
• Daniel Burckhardt: Three rediscovered works from Holbein's earlier days in Basel. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde , Vol. 4, 1905, pp. 18–37. ( Digitized version )
• Max J. Friedländer. In: Wilhelm R. Valentiner (Ed.): The unknown masterpiece in public and private collections. Vol. 1, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Berlin 1930, p. 68.
• Paul Ganz : Hans Holbein the Elder J .: The master's painting. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1919 ( Classics of Art. Vol. 20).
• Eduard His:  Holbein, Hans the Younger . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 715-724.
• Hans Holbein: The Holbeiners. An overview of a 700-year civil family history with family trees. Seemann, Leipzig 1905. Digital copy (on descent and offspring)
• Dominik M. Klinger, Antje Höttler: The painter brothers Ambrosius and Hans d. J. Holbein. Catalog raisonné: paintings and miniatures. Wilson-DMK, Nuremberg 1998, ISBN 3-923642-34-2 .
• Christian Müller, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Hans Holbein the Younger. The years in Basel 1515–1532. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3581-2 .
• Katrin Petter-Wahnschaffe: Hans Holbein and the Stalhof in London. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-422-06952-7 , pp. 29-48.
• Hans Reinhardt:  Holbein, Hans the Younger. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 515-520 ( digitized version ).
• John Rowlands: Holbein. The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger. Phaidon, Oxford 1985, ISBN 0-7148-2358-9 .
• Jochen Sander: Hans Holbein the Elder J .: panel painter in Basel 1515–1532. Hirmer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7774-2375-0 .
• Norbert Wolf : Holbein. 1497 / 98-1543. The German Raffael. Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3166-2 .
• Jeanette Zwingenberger: Hans Holbein the Younger. The shadow of death. Parkstone, Bournemouth 1999, ISBN 1-85995-497-9 .
• Mauro Zanchi, Holbein, Art e Dossier, Giunti, Firenze 2013. ISBN 978-88-09-78250-1

Literary reception

• Emanuel Stickelberger : Holbein Trilogy.
  • The man with two souls. Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1942.
  • Holbein in England. Sauerlander, Aarau 1944.
  • Artist and king. Huber, Frauenfeld 1946.

Web links

Commons : Hans Holbein the Younger  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hans Holbein the Younger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Hans Holbein the Younger  in the German Digital Library
• Works by Hans Holbein the Younger in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
• Works by Hans Holbein the Younger at Zeno.org .
• kunstaspekte.de - Hans Holbein the Younger
• Dance of Death, 33 woodcuts (images)
• Web Gallery of Art
• Oskar Bätschmann : Holbein, Hans (the younger). In: Sikart
• Alberto de Andrés, Stefan Hess : Holbein, Hans (the younger). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Dance of death through all the Stendt of the people ... adorned with figures and rhymes, 1581 digitized in the digital library of the Austrian National Library
• Marcus Sandel, Daniel Sidler: Hans Holbein the Younger at the Basel History Association

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulrich Hegner: Hans Holbein the Younger: With the master's portrait. In: https://books.google.de/ . G. Reimer, 1827, Berlin, 1827, accessed on July 9, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Andreas Mertin: The hymn book of the ambassadors. An exploration of church music politics. 2016, accessed October 10, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Hans Holbein: The Holbeiner, an overview of a 700-year bourgeois family history with family trees. EA Seemann, Leipzig 1905.
4. ^ Royal Collection
5. ^ Holbeinhaus in Basel
6. ^ J. Wiese: The six wives of Henry VIII. Peter J. Oestergaard, Berlin-Schöneberg 1931.
7. ↑ The basin from the Bremen town hall in the Focke Museum Bremen is the only silver work that can be traced back to a Holbein design with verifiable proof of provenance at the Stalhof.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Christian Müller, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Hans Holbein the Younger. The years in Basel 1515–1532. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3581-2 .
9. ↑ Alexander Goette : Holbein's dance of death and his models. Strasbourg 1897.
10. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know what" . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 , pp. 145 ff.
11. ↑ faz.net
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Susan Foister: Holbein in England. Tate Publishing, London 2006, ISBN 1-85437-645-4 .
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Oskar Bätschmann, Pascal Griener: Hans Holbein. DuMont, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7701-3923-2 .
14. ↑ ^{a b} Erika Langmuir: National Gallery Museum Guide. National Gallery Company, London 2004, ISBN 1-85709-345-3 .
15. ↑ https://www.economist.com/news/2007/03/16/the-party-of-the-century (02/23/2019)
16. ↑ LIST OF THE v.DERSCHAUISCHE Kunstkabinett zu NÜRNBERG…. Nuremberg, at the obliged auctioneer Schmidmer., 1825., 250 p., Directory of rare art collections., 1825., Google Books, online , p. 8 and 9.