There are other versions of this picture in existence, among them a good late sixteenth-century copy in the Lille Museum,[[784]] which has a blue background. Like the Basel example, it is on paper pasted upon wood, but it has not been cut out round the outlines, while on a piece of paper added to the top of the panel there is an inscription in gold, which runs—
“Die Liebe zu Gott heist Charitas,
Wer Liebe hatt der tragtt kein hass,”
thus turning it into a representation of Charity. A second[[785]] example, though a work of no particular skill, is of interest because it gives what was probably the background of the original work before it was cut down, one of those architectural compositions with pilasters and an ornamental frieze which Holbein so frequently used as a setting for his earlier portraits, part of which forms a high-backed seat in which the wife is placed. This copy, which belongs to Herr E. Trümpy, of Glarus, shows some small differences, in the boy’s hair, the folds of the draperies, &c., but it has suffered so much that it is difficult to pass judgment upon it. It must have been painted before the original work was cut down towards the end of the sixteenth century. That the picture represents the painter’s wife and children is certain, for it was in the possession of Amerbach, whose son entered it in his inventory as “Holbeins fraw vnd zwei kinder von im H. Holbein conterfehet vf papir mit olfarben, vf holtz gezogen.”
This picture is painted with greater breadth and freedom than was his custom. The delicacy of handling which marked almost all that he did has given place to a more rapid but none the less truthful execution. The baby is by no means a beautiful child, and the mother’s plainness of countenance is almost repulsive at the first glance. Her expression is one of deep dejection, her face careworn and unhappy, and her eyes are rimmed with red, suggesting ill-health or sorrow. The grouping is unconventional, and it may be that the artist began to paint them just as he happened to see them, without any elaborate posing or attempt to make a picture of them. The wonderful truth with which he has realised them, however, the fine rich colour, and the luminous painting of the flesh tones, combine to make it one of his greatest works, in the study and appreciation of which the want of physical beauty in the principal sitter and the severe plainness of the costumes are overlooked and forgotten. Though only six years later than the Solothurn Madonna and the portrait at the Hague, Elsbeth Holbein has already lost all appearance of youth, and the cares of life have left heavy traces behind them. Her features are now not merely homely, but heavy and uninteresting, while her figure is solid, ample, and ungraceful. Yet it is still possible to recognise the likeness, no doubt somewhat idealised in the earlier work, but here set down with remorseless truth. The cause of this loss of youth and good looks, due, according to some modern critics, to Holbein’s neglect and his infatuation for Magdalena Offenburg, has been touched upon in an earlier chapter. M. de Wyzewa, who is one of those who hold this theory, regards this Basel family group as one of the few pictures in which Holbein completely reveals his artistic soul. “I doubt,” he says,[[786]] “if there exists in the world another painting comparable to this for subtle and dolorous beauty of expression.” In its revelation of truth it is an act of accusation against the painter himself, such as is not to be found in any written account of him by his contemporaries, who, it is suggested, influenced by his importance as an artist and by his connection with big and influential people, did not think it wise to speak the truth about him. It was Magdalena who was the chief cause of this domestic misery, we are told. She was “l’odieuse rivale qui l’a dépouillée de sa beauté et de son bonheur, et de toute sa fortune par-dessus le marché, qui a réduit l’exquise jeune femme du portrait de la Haye à devenir le fantôme navrant du portrait de Bâle; voilà peut-être le grief qui aura pesé le plus cruellement sur le cœur ulcéré d’Elisabeth Holbein! Et qui sait si ce remords-là ne s’est point dressé au premier plan dans l’âme du peintre lui-même, lorsqu’en 1529 celui-ci a éprouvé le besoin de nous crier sa confession de mari et de père, en même temps qu’il allait nous révéler la puissante, l’émouvante grandeur de son génie d’artiste?”
The boy in the picture, who appears to be six or seven years old, may well have been the model for the Infant Christ in the Solothurn Madonna. The group has been painted with a speed and spontaneity which is not usual in Holbein’s portraits, with their minute finish and careful elaboration of details. This unwonted vigour of handling, however, gives to it a freedom and a largeness which make it unique among the varied manifestations of his genius. It has many of the qualities of a brilliant sketch, in which both likeness and character have been set down with direct and masterly power.
Vol. I., Plate 91.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN
Unfinished study in oils
Basel Gallery
A very remarkable portrait study of a young woman in the Basel Gallery (No. 326) (Pl. [91]),[[787]] which comes from the Faesch Cabinet, bears a close resemblance to the Family Group, and is ascribed by Dr. Ganz to the same year, 1528, to which it undoubtedly belongs. The subject, evidently a woman of Holbein’s own class, is extremely plain, with heavy features, and dark eyes and hair. She is represented to the waist, turned slightly to the spectator’s left, her long hands, with numerous rings, crossed in front of her. It is drawn with the pencil, and coloured with oil colours thinly laid on and mixed with white upon a red-toned ground. The background is a plain, deep blue. It is unfinished, the turban-like cap, and the outer bodice of the dress having the colour only slightly indicated. It is of the utmost interest, as it affords evidence of Holbein’s methods of working at this period, methods which he employed in painting his wife and children, also done in oils on paper; and it is, in addition, a wonderfully powerful study in portraiture, lifelike, vigorous, and subtle.