Hans Holbein the Younger was a German painter and printmaker of Swiss descent who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.
Paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1520)
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, sometimes referred to as Dead Christ, is an oil and tempera on limewood painting created by the German artist and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger between 1520 and 1522.
It shows a life-size, grotesque depiction of the stretched and unnaturally thin body of Jesus Christ lying in his tomb. Holbein shows the dead Son of God after he has suffered the fate of an ordinary human. The painting is held in the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Darmstadt Madonna (1526)
The Darmstadt Madonna (also known as the Madonna of Jakob Meyer zum Hasen) is an oil painting by the German-Swiss artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Completed ca. 1526—1530 in Basel, the work shows the Bürgermeister of Basel Jakob Meyer zum Hasen, his first wife (who had died earlier), his current wife, and his daughter grouped around the Madonna and infant Jesus.
The meaning of the two other male figures on the left side (the Madonna's right) is, like the overall iconography of the image, not entirely clear. Franny Moyle writes that the man on the Madonna's right is Meyer, and "[t]he boy and baby may be a presentation of Meyer's two deceased sons...." The image testified to the resolutely Catholic faith of the Bürgermeister, who actively opposed the Reformation.
The Ambassadors (Holbein) (1533)
The Ambassadors is a 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger. Also known as Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, after the two people it portrays, it was created in the Tudor period, in the same year Elizabeth I was born. Franny Moyle speculates that Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, then Queen of England, might have commissioned it as a gift for Jean de Dinteville, the French ambassador, portrayed on the left. De Selve was a Catholic bishop.
As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of meticulously rendered objects, the meaning of which is the cause of much debate. An array of expensive scientific objects, related to knowing the time and the cosmos are prominently displayed. Several refer to Rome, the seat of the Pope. A second shelf of objects shows a lute with a broken string, a symbol of discord, next to a hymnal composed by Martin Luther.
Portrait of Sir Thomas More (1527)
Portrait of Sir Thomas More is an oak panel painting created in 1527 by the German artist and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger, now in the Frick Collection in New York.
The portrait shows the English statesman and humanist Thomas More in three-quarter right half-profile, holding a book, in a fur-lined coat of rich fabrics, black satin, and red velvet. He wears his Tudor Collar of Esses livery chain with Tudor rose, a sign of fealty and high office. A cord in the upper right is tied in a loose Franciscan knot, a sign of More's spiritual convictions. He is wearing a wedding ring inset with a stone on his left index finger.
Portrait of Christina of Denmark (1538)
Portrait of Christina of Denmark (or Portrait in Mourning) is an oil on oak panel painting by Hans Holbein the Younger completed in 1538. It was commissioned that year by Thomas Cromwell, agent for Henry VIII, as a betrothal painting following the death of the English Queen Jane Seymour. It shows the then sixteen-year-old Christina of Denmark, widow of the Duke of Milan since age 13. Her striking manner and strength of character are apparent in the portrait. Although Henry was taken by the representation, the marriage proposal did not go ahead, not least because Christina was aware of Henry's earlier mistreatment of his wives. She is reported as saying, "If I had two heads, I would happily put one at the disposal of the King of England". Various political and practical obstacles related to her ties with the Lutheran church also thwarted the match.
Art historian Derek Wilson wrote that the portrait "is the loveliest painting of a woman [Holbein] ever painted, that is, it is one of the finest female portraits ever painted."
Venus and Amor (1526)
Venus and Amor (also known as Venus and Cupid) is painting by Hans Holbein the Youngers workshop and is the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland. It was assumed for a long time to be painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, but research showed that this could not be possible. It was discovered that the painter had used a sort of carbon paper with the contours of the already existing Laïs and used it to transfer those contours in reverse on the new portrait he was to paint of Venus.
As the portrait is dated 1526, the year of Holbein's departure from Basel, it is assumed that it was painted between 1526 and 1528, the years Holbein stayed in London. The painting depicts the Roman goddess of love, Venus, with her son Amor (Cupid) and the model is believed to be either Magdalena Offenburg or her daughter Dorothea. They are shown in front of a large hanging green curtain and behind a low parapet. Venus is depicted with an open gesture and sincere gaze. Cupid is seen climbing onto the parapet while holding love's arrow in his left hand. He has red-orange hair, rendered in the same colouring and tone of the rich cloth sleeves covering his mother's upper arms.
Portrait of Henry VIII (1537)
Portrait of Henry VIII is a lost painting by Hans Holbein the Younger depicting Henry VIII. It is one of the most iconic images of Henry VIII and is one of the most famous portraits of any English or British monarch. It was created in 1536–1537 as part of the Whitehall Mural showing the Tudor dynasty at the Palace of Whitehall, Westminster, which was destroyed by fire in 1698, but is still well known through many copies.
Hans Holbein the Younger, originally from Germany, had been appointed the English King's Painter in 1536. The portrait was created to adorn the privy chamber of Henry's newly acquired Palace of Whitehall. Henry was spending vast sums to decorate the 23-acre (93,000 m2) warren of residences he had seized after the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey. The original mural featured four figures arranged around a marble plinth: Henry, his wife Jane Seymour, and his parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The mural was thus commissioned sometime during the brief marriage of Henry and Jane Seymour and was completed in 1537. It may well have been commissioned to celebrate the coming or actual birth of Henry's long-awaited heir, Edward, born in October 1537. It is not clear where in the palace the mural was located, but it may have been in the king's Privy Chamber or study, where only a very select few would have seen it.
Portrait of Sir Richard Southwell (1536)
The Portrait of Sir Richard Southwell is a painting by the German Renaissance master Hans Holbein the Younger, executed around 1536–1537. It is housed in the Uffizi, Florence.
The painting was required by Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici in 1620 to Thomas Howard, Duke of Arundel, to fill a gap in the family collections. It arrived in Florence in April 1621, when Cosimo had already died. It belongs to Holbein's mature career, and a preparatory drawing of the painting (with the inscription "Southwell Knight") exists in the Royal Collections of the Windsor Castle. The Louvre houses a copy brought to Paris during the Napoleonic Wars.
Portrait of Nicolaus Kratzer (1528)
Portrait of Nicolaus Kratzer is a 1528 half-length portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. It is now in the Louvre, whilst a copy after it hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. It shows the astronomer Nikolaus Kratzer, a friend of Thomas More and Holbein himself. In his hand he holds a half-finished polyhedral sundial, whilst on the shelves behind him are a semi-circular star quadrant, a shepherd's dial and other instruments.
Solothurn Madonna (1522)
The Solothurn Madonna is an oil-on-panel painting created in 1522 by the German-Swiss artist Hans Holbein the Younger in Basel. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ enthroned, flanked by Martin of Tours, shown as a bishop giving alms to a beggar, and Ursus of Solothurn, depicted as a soldier in armour. Notably, Holbein used his wife, Elsbeth, as the model for the Madonna, and the baby is believed to have been modelled after Holbein and Elsbeth's infant son Philipp.
The church that originally commissioned the Solothurn Madonna is unknown, but it reappeared in 1864 in a state of disrepair at the Allerheiligenkapelle in the Grenchen district of Solothurn. The town of Solothurn has owned the painting since 1879, and it has been named after the town since the late 19th century. Currently, it is housed at the Solothurn Art Museum. After the Darmstadt Madonna, the Solothurn Madonna is the second largest surviving Madonna by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Self-portrait (Hans Holbein the Younger) (1542)
The Self-portrait is a small drawing by the German Renaissance artist and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger, completed around 1542–1543, and housed in the Uffizi, Florence. The gold background was added later by a different artist. According to art historian John Rowlands, "Although this drawing has been enlarged on all sides and heavily reworked, enough of it still shows to allow the assumption that the original work was executed by Holbein. The inscription, also a later addition, evidently records an even earlier one, of which slight traces remain.
Copies of the drawing exist, including one by Lucas Horenbout, in which the left-handed Holbein is holding a paintbrush. Art historian Stephanie Buck notes that Holbein's direct gaze suggests he was looking into a mirror. Holbein died not long after completing this self-portrait, probably of the plague.
Portrait of Georg Giese (1532)
Portrait of Georg Giese is a 1532 portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It is one of a series of portraits of wealthy Hanseatic merchants made by Holbein in the 1530s. This series of portraits signals the increasing importance of the emerging merchant class, as they took their place on a world stage.
In the 1530s, the artist Hans Holbein the Younger was commissioned to paint portraits of wealthy members of Hanseatic merchant families who were stationed at their family offices in London's Steelyard. Hans Holbein, the younger painted a series of eight portraits of individual merchants from the Steelyard. These portraits included Georg Giese of Danzig; Hans of Antwerp and Hermann Wedigh (all painted in 1532); Hillebrant Wedigh of Cologne; Unknown member of the Wedigh family; Dirk Tybis of Duisburg; Cyriacus Kale and Derick Born (all painted in 1533); Derick Berck (painted in 1536).