HOLBEIN IN GERMANY.* 
By H. Ward. 
PART I. ATT GSBUEG. 
JLAND has long re- 
garded Holbein as an 
adopted son, devoted to 
her during half his life- 
time, and nearly the 
whole of his career ; for 
he came to London in 
152G, and, according to 
most of his early bio- 
graphers, he was then only 
twenty-eight, and resided here until he died of 
the plague in 1554, being fifty-six years old. 
This English period of twenty-eight years is brim- 
fid of pictures attributed to him ; but eleven of 
the years have been lately cut clean away. In 
the “ Archseologia ” for 1863, was published his 
Will, drawn up on the 7th October, and adminis- 
tered on the 29th November, 1543. Some doubts 
as to the testator’s identity were hinted in the 
Catalogue of the National Portrait Exhibition of 
the present year ; but the main question has now 
been settled, by the discovery of a document in 
the archives of Basle, which is appended to the 
volume before us. It is the official copy of a letter 
from the city magistrates to one Jacob David, gold- 
smith at Paris, summoning him (as being himself 
a citizen of Basle) to grant testimonials to his ap- 
prentice Philip, son “of the late Hans Holbein, de- 
ceased ” ( von wylanclt Hansen Holbein seligen ) : this 
is dated 19th November, 1545. We may, therefore, 
set aside the old authorities, and accept the very 
convincing proofs adduced in the “ Archseologia,” 
that Holbein died in 1543. Thus his whole resi- 
dence in England extended over no more than 
seventeen years ; and from these again at least two 
must be subtracted, as he was actively engaged at 
Basle in 1529-31. All this seems to give great 
satisfaction to the Germans, who naturally regard 
Basle as an outlying portion of Fatherland ; indeed, 
it did not enter the Swiss Confederation till 1501. 
Moreover, Holbein was not a native of Basle, as 
* Holbein und seine Zeit : von Dr. Alfred Woltmann. 
Erster Tbeil, mit 31, Holzschnitten und einer Photo-litlio- 
graphie. Leipzig. 1866. 
VI. 
we used to believe, but of the right German Free 
City of Augsburg ; and there he painted under his 
father for years before his migration to Basle, which 
took place in 1516. Germany thus claims half his 
career ; and an account of it, down to his first 
departure for England in 1526, is contained in this, 
the first volume of “ Holbein and his Age.” We 
have found it such pleasant reading, and so in- 
teresting, though at times fantastic, that we desire 
to lay a sketch of it before the readers of Nature 
and Art. Eor the present we shall stay at 
Augsburg ; next month we shall proceed to Basle • 
and by that time the Life announced by Mr. 
W ornuvn will have been published, and we shall then 
be fully enabled to treat of Holbein in England. 
We will commence by playing the showman. 
It will be observed that our photo-lithograph 
represents a young man and a sturdy boy of four- 
teen ; the numbers over the head of the latter are 
very distinct, and so is his name, “ ITanns Holbain.” 
The original was drawn with the silver point, and 
belonged to a series in the first home sketch-books 
of the boy. It is now one of seventy, preserved at 
Berlin ] twenty-six are at Copenhagen, eighteen at 
Basle, and others at Weimar, Munich, &c . ; but 
the subjects and inscriptions show that they all 
came from Augsburg. Some utterly unskilled 
hand, it will be further observed, has meddled 
with the features of the boy-artist, but not enough 
to destroy their character ; and the feeble lines of 
the pen serve at least as a foil to the bold and 
flowing strokes of the silver point. The boy’s 
companion used to be called his father, but the 
remains of the inscription show it to be his 
eldest brother, Ambrosius. The numbers denoting 
the age of the latter, and the date on the upper 
verge of the drawing, are now very faint. Dr. 
Woltmann complains that they are fainter in his 
own photo-lithograph ; and in ours, which is only 
a copy of a copy, they are fainter still. W e cannot, 
then, seriously contest Dr. Woltmann’s readings : 
the age of Ambrosius, he says, is given as twenty- 
five, though the face is older ; and though the date 
looks like 1511, yet on closer inspection it proves 
to be 1509. Thus he decides that Hans Holbein 
M 
