The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER
HANS HOLBEIN
Self-Portrait
Drawing in Indian ink and coloured chalks, washed with water-colour
Basel Gallery
PREFACE
IN this book the writer has endeavoured to give ascomplete an account as possible of the life and careerof the younger Holbein, together with a descriptionof every known picture painted by him, and of themore important of his drawings and designs. Theearlier books devoted to the subject—such as Wornum’s Life andWorks, 1867, and Dr. Woltmann’s two volumes—although they mustalways remain of the utmost help to the student, are now in somerespects out of date. The second edition of the latter’s great work,in which he modified and corrected many passages in the earlier issue,has never been fully translated into English; while the latest book ofimportance on the subject published in this country, Hans Holbein theYounger, by Mr. Gerald S. Davies, M.A., 1903, is mainly devoted tothe art of the painter, and does not profess to give complete biographicaldetails of his life. In recent years many new facts as toHolbein’s career have been discovered, and fresh pictures by himunearthed, while modern criticism has reversed some of the earlierconclusions respecting the authorship of a certain number of works atone time attributed to him. Much valuable information upon thesubject has been published at home and abroad, largely in periodicalsdevoted to such matters and in the transactions of artis