Hans Holbein the Younger, his professional stature …
Years: 1527 - 1527
Hans Holbein the Younger, his professional stature in Basel assured, seeks new challenges abroad, traveling in 1526 to Antwerp and London, where he stays for eighteen months.
Provided with letters of introduction by Erasmus, he receives a commission for a group portrait of Sir Thomas More and his family.
Erasmus had recommended that he befriend More, at this time a powerful, knighted speaker at the English Parliament.
More had in 1525 become Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
The full-length portrait, executed in the sitters' home, is the first such in European history.
Now lost, it survives in Holbein's drawing and in copies.
Today the painting is best known for its realism, and for the mastery of color Holbein displays in the hanging green drapes, and deep reds of the sitter's sleeves.
