As Holbein found Erasmus still in Basel when he returned there in August 1528, he must have presented Sir Thomas More’s gift to him on his arrival. There could be no reason for delay unless he had in some way mislaid the sketch. Nor is it likely that Erasmus would have waited for thirteen months before writing to More to thank him; if he had done so, he would at least have made some apology for his remissness. Yet in his published works his letter of thanks is dated Freiburg, 5th September 1529, so that the matter is not easy of explanation, unless this again is another mistake in dating on the part of the editor of the letters. If the correct date of the letters to More and his daughter is 1528, not 1529, then Erasmus wasted little time before writing to More to thank him for the drawing. It seems certain that the scholar, highly delighted with the picture of his friends, and the letters from them which accompanied it, would not let many days go past without acknowledging them.
In his letter to Sir Thomas he says: “Oh that it were once more granted me in life to see such dear friends face to face whom I contemplate with the utmost joy imaginable in the picture, which Holbein (Olpeius) has brought me!”[[779]] On the next day, September 6th, he wrote to Margaret Roper: “I can scarcely express in words, Margaret Roper, thou ornament of thine England, what hearty delight I experienced when the painter Holbein (Olpeinus) presented to my view your whole family in such a successful delineation, that I could scarcely have seen you better had I been myself near you. Constantly do I desire that once more, before my goal is reached, it may be granted me to see this dear family circle, to whom I owe the best part of my outward prosperity, and of my fame, whatever they may be, and would owe them rather than to any other mortal. A fair portion of this wish has now been fulfilled by the gifted hand of the painter. I recognise all, yet none more than thee, and from the beautiful vestment of thy form I feel as if I could see thy still more beautiful mind beaming forth.... Greet thy mother, the honoured Mistress Alice, many times from me; as I could not embrace her myself, I have kissed her picture from my heart.”[[780]] In the first letter Erasmus writes Holbein’s name as Olpeius, confusing him for the moment with an old “famulus” of his own, Severinus Olpeius. In the second letter, in which he calls him Olpeinus, he gets nearer to the correct name. In her answer to this last letter, dated November 4th, Margaret says: “Quod pictoris tibi adventus tantæ voluptati fuit, illo nomine, quod utriusque mei parentis nostrumque omnium effigiem depictam detulerit, ingentibus cum gratiis libenter agnoscimus.”[[781]]
Holbein must soon have discovered that his prospects of remunerative employment were far from promising, when compared with the field he had so recently abandoned. Fortunately he had some little money in his pockets when he returned, and perhaps for some months, before the religious dissensions came to so acute a head, he may have found profitable work. But the outburst in the spring of 1529 put an abrupt end to all painting of sacred pictures or work of any kind for the churches. The 18th clause (“upon pictures”) in an order passed by the Reformation party in that year stated: “We have no pictures in our churches, either in the city or country, because they formerly gave much incitement to idolatry, therefore God has so decidedly forbidden them, and has cursed all who make images. Hence, in future, by God’s help, we will set up no pictures, but will seriously reflect how we can provide comfort for the poor needy ones who are the true and living images of God.”[[782]] For a painter who had to make a living for a wife and family such conditions were serious enough, for they cut off one of his chief sources of employment. Judging from the numerous studies in the Basel Gallery, Holbein, before his first visit to England, must have been frequently engaged on pictures, wall-paintings, and designs for windows for churches, all of which, with few exceptions, such as the Meyer Madonna and one or two others, perished before the fury of the mob. It was natural that he should look forward to a continuance of work of this nature, and however strongly, in his heart, he may have believed in the Reformation itself, he must have been in little accord with it in its treatment of art. Nor was it a time when the leading citizens of Basel had leisure or desire for so peaceful an occupation as sitting for their portraits. The times were far too strenuous. Several of his earlier friends, and patrons, too, were no longer there to help him. Froben had died two years before he got back, and Erasmus was about to wipe the dust of Basel from his feet, while Amerbach was a temporary absentee. His old friend, Jakob Meyer “zum Hasen,” was still a prominent figure among the Catholic minority, and, therefore, had little influence to place at his service. Under such adverse conditions it is, perhaps, not wonderful that only one panel painting of the second Basel period can be pointed to with any certainty—the portrait-group of his wife and two elder children. This, and the remaining wall-paintings in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, are the only works of importance of which we have any record.
PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN
The portrait of his wife and his two elder children, Philip and Katherine, in the Basel Gallery (No. 325) (Pl. [90]),[[783]] was, no doubt, one of the first things he undertook after his arrival. In any case, it was painted in 1528 or 1529. It is in oils on four pieces of paper fastened together, and at some subsequent time has been cut out round the figures and mounted on a panel, thus spoiling the delicacy of the outlines. The figures are life-size, and the wife, who is seated, facing the spectator, is shown at almost three-quarters length. She wears a dark green bodice without ornament, cut very low and straight across the breast, and a dark-brown over-garment trimmed with a thin band of fur. Her light brown hair is covered by a transparent veil which comes low over her forehead, and a small brown cap on the back of her head. On her left knee she supports a red-haired baby, about eighteen months old, born during Holbein’s absence, dressed in a cap and an undyed woollen garment, while her right hand rests on the shoulder of a boy of about six or seven, with long fair hair, wearing a dark blue-green dress above which the white collar of his shirt is visible. The lad, who is shown in profile, is looking upwards to the right, and presses against his mother’s knee. His head and shoulders only are shown.
The picture is dated, but in the cutting out process it underwent prior to its fastening upon the wood panel, which was done before 1586, as is to be gathered from the Amerbach inventory, the last figure has been shorn away, and only “152” remains. It is almost certain that this date was 1528 or 1529, probably the former, for Holbein, once more united with his wife and family, would be likely to give expression to his pleasure by painting their portraits. In the greater energy of its conception and the vigour of its treatment it more closely resembles the portraits painted in England than his earlier Basel work.
Vol. I., Plate 90.
HOLBEIN’S WIFE AND CHILDREN
1528-9
Basel Gallery
PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN