Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 – 1543) was born in Germany. He was a designer, draftsman and painter, known for the gripping realism of his portraits, and the precise depiction of his subjects especially those recording the King Henry VIII’s court of England. He was born in a family of important artists. His father and his uncle were well known for their late Gothic painting in Germany. One of his brothers also became a painter, but he unfortunately died about 1519 before maturing as an artist. Holbein and his brothers first studied with their father in Augsburg. Holbein began independent work around 1515 in Basel, Switzerland. Holbein is the only truly outstanding German artist of his generation. His work in Basel was extremely varied during the decade of 1515–25. He made trips to northern Italy and France which certainly affected the development of his religious subjects and portraiture.
In 1519, he entered the painters’ corporation and became a burgher of Basel in 1520. In 1521 Holbein executed significant mural decorations in the Great Council Chamber of town hall in Basel. While in northern Italy and France, he produced fresco and woodcuts designs as well as panel paintings. The demand for religious images declined with the spread of the Reformation in Northern Europe and artists sought alternative work. In 1526, Holbein traveled to England with a recommendation from the scholar Erasmus to Thomas More. He spent two periods of his life in England, portraying the graciousness of the court at Tudor. In 1532 Holbein settled in England, where he died in 1543.
