b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century.[2] He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and 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. Born in Augsburg, Holbein worked mainly in Basel as a young artist. At first he painted murals and religious works and designed for stained glass windows and printed books. He also painted the occasional portrait, making his international mark with portraits of the humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. When the Reformation reached Basel, Holbein worked for reformist clients while continuing to serve traditional religious patrons. His Late Gothic style was enriched by artistic trends in Italy, France, and the Netherlands, as well as by Renaissance Humanism. The result was a combined aesthetic uniquely his own. Holbein travelled to England in 1526 in search of work, with a recommendation from Erasmus. He was welcomed into the humanist circle of Thomas More, where he quickly built a high reputation. After returning to Basel for four years, he resumed his career in England in 1532. This time he worked for the twin founts of patronage, Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. By 1535, he was King's Painter to King Henry VIII. In this role, he produced not only portraits and festive decorations but designs for jewellery, plate, and other precious objects. His portraits of the royal family and nobles are a vivid record of a brilliant court in the momentous years when Henry was asserting his supremacy over the English church. Holbein's art was prized from early in his career. The French poet and reformer Nicholas Bourbon dubbed him "the Apelles of our time".[3] Holbein has also been described as a great "one-off" of art history, since he founded no school.[4] After his death, some of his work was lost, but much was collected, and by the 19th century, Holbein was recognised among the great portrait masters. Recent exhibitions have also highlighted his versatility.   Related Paintings of Hans holbein the younger :. | Lady with a Squirrel | Noli me tangere | Portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve | Portrait of Anne of Clevers,Queen of England | Sir Thomas More |
Related Artists:
KEIRINCKX, Alexander
Flemish painter (b. 1600, Antwerpen, d. 1652, Amsterdam). Flemish painter. He was the son of Matthijs Keirinckx and Anna Masson. In 1619 he became a master in Antwerp's Guild of St Luke, he married Clara Matthausen on 18 June 1622, and in 1624 he took on Artus Verhoeven as an apprentice. From 1636 onwards he is regularly recorded in Amsterdam, where he was registered as a citizen in the year of his death. He visited Great Britain, possibly in 1625 (Walpole mentions two signed and dated drawings of London views from this year) and definitely in 1640-41, when he undertook commissions from King Charles I to paint views of royal castles and palaces.
Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag was born on February 23, 1831 in Groningen. His father, a merchant and banker, was an amateur painter who saw to it that his two sons were also educated in the art of painting. He was a Dutch marine painter. He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his father, an amateur painter, to study art. He married Sina van Houten in 1856, and when they inherited a fortune from her father, Mesdag retired from banking to pursue a career as a painter. He studied in Brussels with Willem Roelofs and in 1868 moved to The Hague to paint the sea. In 1870 he exhibited at the Paris Salon and won the gold medal for The Breakers of the North Sea. Preparations for departureIn 1880 he received a commission from a Belgian company to paint a panorama giving a view over the village of Scheveningen on the North Sea coast near The Hague .
Konstantin Flavitsky
b Moscow, 25 Sept 1830; d St Petersburg, 15 Sept 1866,Russian painter. He completed his studies at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg in 1855. The influence of Karl Bryullov was central to Flavitsky work. He combined the theatricality of academicism and the elegance of salon painting with a desire to observe a degree of realism in his subjects and to relate history to present events, thereby anticipating new developments in Russian history painting.