HANS HOLBEIN MORE THAN A TUDOR ARTIST

EXPERT

FRANNY MOYLE

Franny Moyle is the author of several works of history, including Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde and Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites, which was adapted into a BBC drama. Her latest book on Hans Holbein is available now.

Even if you don’t know much about Hans Holbein the Younger, the 16th century German artist who spent the second half of his career as Henry VIII’s court painter, you are likely to know his portraits of the king. That imposing figure of the monarch: his legs spread wide, his shoulders broadened by the huge fur collar he wears, his hands resting on his hip and dagger, and his gaze trained directly on the viewer. It’s an image of supreme power that has defined Henry for the last 500 years and has graced the cover of just about every book about the Tudor period, from the Ladybird books of yesteryear to the most recent biographies of England’s endlessly fascinating king.

However, Holbein was far more than the king’s portraitist. One of the finest painters in the history of art, his reputation was built on his ability to draw and paint people with such convincing verisimilitude that it was as if they were almost alive. In today’s post-photographic era the experience of seeing a carbon copy of someone