Portrait of a Woman, between 1532 and 1534

  • Hans Holbein the Younger, German, 1497-1543

Tempera and oil on oak panel

  • Unframed: 9 1/8 × 7 1/2 inches (23.2 × 19.1 cm)
  • 15 5/8 × 13 5/8 × 1 1/2 inches (39.7 × 34.6 × 3.8 cm)

Bequest of Eleanor Clay Ford

77.81

On View

  • European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West

Department

European Painting

Although Hans Holbein the Younger was a German painter, he spent little time in his homeland after commissions for paintings, religious and otherwise, became scarce in Protestant Germany. He settled permanently in London in 1532, and, as court painter during the reign of Henry VIII, specialized in portraying royalty and landed gentry. The English style of clothing suggests that Holbein painted this thoughtful portrait of a gentlewoman during the 1530s. The painting is startlingly plain, without informative attributes that might identify the sitter. The artist has concentrated on the woman’s personality as expressed in carriage and demeanor, thereby underscoring inner qualities rather than superficial ones.

Earl of Lonsdale (Lowther Castle, Penrith, England)

1930, (Duveen Brothers, New York, New York, USA)

1930, Mr. & Mrs. Edsel Ford (Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA)

Eleanor Clay Ford

1977-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Waagan, G. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., 3 vols. London, 1854-1857, p. 264, Letter XXVII. Dodgson, C. "A New Portrait of An Englishwoman by Holbein." Burlington Magazine 53 (September 1928): p. 105 (ill.). Kuhn, C.L. A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1936, p. 82, no. 365, pl. 76. Ganz, P. "A Note on a Holbein Portrait." Art Quarterly 1 (1938): pp. 58-60 (ill.). Masterpieces of Art from European and American Collections (European Paintings from the Two World's Fairs of 1939). Detroit, 1941, p. 12, cat. 31 (ill.). Ganz, P. The Paintings of Hans Holbein. London, 1950, p. 245, cat. 82 (ill.). Bulletin of the DIA: Annual Report 56, no. 5 (1978): pp. 258, 261, 275 (fig. 1). Baetjer, K. "A Portrait by Holbein the Younger." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 57, no. 1 (1979): 24–29, pp. 24–29 (ill.). "La Chronique des Arts." Supplement to Gazette des Beaux Arts, no. 1323 (April 1979): p. 35, no. 173 (ill.). Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, pp. 56, 69, no. XII (ill.). Rowlands, J. Holbein The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger. Oxford, 1985, p. 142, cat. 54, pl. 89. 100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 98-99 (ill.). Foister, S. Holbein and England. New Haven and London, 2004, p. 254 (fig. 255). Secrest, Meryle. Duveen: a life in art. New York, 2004, p. 449.

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of a Woman, between 1532 and 1534, tempera and oil on oak panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Eleanor Clay Ford, 77.81.