Hans Holbein the Younger

Son of the Augsburg painter Hans Holbein the Elder, who probably gave him his first training, Holbein was working by 1515 in Basel, where he achieved great success and was part of the humanist circle of Erasmus. It is probable that about 1519 he traveled to Italy, where the art of the Italian Renaissance may have inspired the classic monumentality of his own style. In 1524 Holbein visited France, and from 1526 to 1528 he worked in England. Four years later he returned to settle there, eventually becoming court painter to Henry VIII. A remarkably realistic yet decorative series of portraits of Henry’s court and family is Holbein’s great legacy. He died of the plague in London.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.