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Hans Holbein the Younger's drawings are a significant part of his work as an artist. He began all his works with drawings, and many of these have survived, often for final works now lost. He is most famous for his portrait drawings, which show the same precision and psychological penetration as his painted portraits. They range from rapid sketches to highly finished studies in chalks or chalks and ink. Holbein was also a prolific designer, not only of large scale compositions for murals and stained glass windows, but of weapons, jewellery, and precious metalwork objects, as well as for decorative architecural details and book illustrations, printers' devices, and margins. His work for woodcuts is also highly graphic in style but his preliminary drawings for this medium have not survived, presumably discarded after the blocks were cut.

Holbein learned to draw in the workshop of his father Hans Holbein the Elder at Augsburg. He grew up in a late Gothic tradition of German craftsmanship where detailed drawings were essential for the large scale religious works and the metalwork objects that were in demand. In this tradition, detailed drawings were kept in pattern books for reuse, not only by the artist but by members of his workshop and by future artists. Holbein's father was also a fine portraitist in silverpoint, and his son's early portraits after moving to Basel, for example the studies for the portraits of Jakob and Dorothea Meyer, use the same meticulous technique. In Basel, Holbein also came under the influence of the Italian Renaissance, and he added Renaissance motifs and geometrical precision to his drawing repertoire, quickly becoming an outstanding and then a brilliant draughtsman. Drawings of varying degrees of precision survive, from loose preliminary sketches to refined presentation drawings. They reveal Holbein not only as a master of accuracy and precise design, but also as a free and inventive, even playful draughtsman. From his first satirical illustrations in the margin's of Erasmus's The Praise of Folly in (1517), to the mythologicial figures that animate his designs for weapons, cups, and other precious objects in the 1530s, Holbein also exhibited wit and humour in his drawings.

The extent of Holbein's versatilty as a draughtsman has emerged in recent years to complement his long-standing reputation as a fine portraitist in chalk and ink. His drawings, however, still present considerable difficulties for scholars. Since most of them were intended for further use, whether by window-makers, metalworkers, members of his workshop, or others, they have often been badly rubbed or reworked by later hands, sometimes to the point of obliterating Holbein's lines. In the practice of the time, many portraits were directly painted from Holbein's drawings by other artists, both during his lifetime and after, presenting challenging issues of identification. Many drawings and paintings once thought to be by Holbein are now attributed to others. Holbein's own left-handed drawing technique has proved the key to distinguishing his work from that of his followers and copyists, though many drawings remain troublesome.

What survives

Muller (numbers)

Groupings of work

Poss also in lead

Style

Origins/Gothic/Renaissance

Chiaroscuro drawings

Interest in movement, perspective, and proportion (see also perspective body)

Techniques

Silverpoint pen into chalks

Line and wash

Transfer to finished art

Drawing in the paintings

Devices

Portraits

Meyers etc/ Basel portraits

First English Period

Second English period

Windsor Collection

Issues of authorship

Designs

Design principles

Gothic to renaissance/Pattern books/Religious works/ stained glass

Lost stuffimportance

metalwork/goldsmithery

weapons objects precious objects

jewellery

Design process Foister 85/example of presentation drawing/ conmtrast with loose cup style (combined drawing?)

Holbein's draughtsmanship

Exploratory drawings