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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Hans Holbein
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the Younger (c.1497–1543)
German painter, born in Augsburg, whose years in London gave portraiture in England a late but distinguished start. His father, also Hans, and his uncle and elder brother were all painters. The younger Hans established himself first in Switzerland, at Basel. In 1526 he visited England with a letter of introduction from *Erasmus to Sir Thomas *More, who took him into his household. His painting of More's family, now surviving only in early copies, was the earliest European image of a family seen at home in a full natural setting.
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Holbein came back to England again in 1532, after the Swiss *Calvinist version of the *Reformation had made life in Basel difficult for a painter. This time he settled, soon finding employment with *Henry VIII. The massively four-square image by which posterity remembers the king was Holbein's, though again surviving only in versions which are probably copies. In 1538–9 he was sent abroad to paint *Anne of Cleves, due to become the king's fourth bride.
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Holbein produced a great number of portraits of the courtiers of Henry VIII, and many of his preparatory drawings are in the Royal Collection at Windsor (widely known through being reproduced in 1792 as colour stipple engravings, themselves now much treasured). In his last years he also tried his hand at portrait *miniatures, and brought this relatively new form to a high standard. He died in London during one of the many epidemics of the plague.
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