Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades on Hans Holbein the Younger. The author of a new biography of Holbein, Elizabeth Goldring, was in conversation with Michael Prodger of the New Statesman, to bring out the highlights of her book. I was fascinated to hear how Goldring went about her research given that Holbein left no diaries or letters. The only source material from him are a dictated will and notes on his drawings. Instead she turned to his patrons’ archives such as the letters of Erasmus. I liked her description of these as adjacent works. She talked about how Holbein’s portraits have become our view of Tudor England and how she can’t image Tudor art or history without him. However she also talked about other works by him from before he came to England, in particular his portraits of Erasmus which his workshop continued to produce in Basle even after he’d moved to England. She also mentioned his design work including armour for Henry VIII and over 200 pieces of jewell...

Fabulous exhibition at the King’s Gallery putting the Holbeins in the Royal Collection into context. I loved the opening of the show with the “Noli Me Tangere”, which is not how we think of Holbein. It set the narrative that this wasn’t just about the portraits.   The first gallery of the show took time to set the scene for his arrival in England pointing out that there were portraits at court before but how many arrived as gifts and tended to feature foreign royalty. I was moved to see the images of Catherine of Aragon’s parents, Ferdinand and Isabella, which surely must have come with her to England as a reminder of home. The next room focused on Holbein’s work for courtiers with an emphasis on the preparatory drawings for portraits. It included one of the few examples where they had the drawing and painting. The sitter looked older in the painting. It was wonderful walking round looking at this group of people from nearly 500 years ago who would have known each other. T...

Clear lecture online from National Gallery putting their Holbein portraits into context. Gallery Educator Katy Tarbard took us though Holbein’s life then focused on the paintings in their own collection and where they fit into Tudor history. She also looked at a portrait of Erasmus which is currently on loan from Longford Castle so it is worth a National Gallery revisit to see it. She took us though some of the symbolism in The Ambassadors and told us how the two sitters were in England for the marriage of Anne Boleyn then had to stay for the birth of the child she was carrying. She also talked about Henry’s quest to find a new wife following Jane Seymour’s death leading to the painting of the wonderful full length picture of Christina of Denmark.

Neat little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at how the increased demand was met for works by Holbein after his death. It is interesting to see a show focusing on what many might consider to be fakes. It shows a change in emphasis to the modern approach of not only holding up great works but looking at the use of art and market for it. These were pictures bought by people knowing they were not by the great man either because they wanted a high quality image of the person shown or because they wanted to buy into the Holbein style. I loved a small framed sketch they has which was an studio pattern of Fisher showing the holes and pounces used to reproduce copies. It was also interesting to see the evidence that the picture of Sir Thomas Moore had been produced on the continent, the wood and primer used, which showed that this reproduction of work was not confined to Britain. Review Telegraph