Among the portraits of ladies it is unfortunate that several of the finest have suffered from bad rubbing. Such an one is the head of Mary, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, and wife of the King’s natural son, Henry, Duke of Richmond, which has been already described.[589] The fine head of Lady Mewtas (Pl. 37# (2)),[590] the face a strong one, is very delicately modelled, and unspoilt by the presence of too forcible outlines. Her jewelled ornaments include a circular pendant with five dark table stones and three hanging pearls, suspended from a thin chain, with beads round the neck, a circular medallion at the breast with a figure subject now almost obliterated, and across the top of the bodice a band of pearls set in groups of five like flowers. The incorrectly-named “Lady Mary, after Queen,”[591] whom it certainly does not represent, is another fine drawing which has suffered considerable damage. It has been gone over with the tracing point for transference to panel, but no painting after it is now known to exist. The same is the case with the head of the Marchioness of Dorset,[592] the daughter of Charles Brandon and the King’s sister, Mary, which also shows indications of tracing. This is a good example of a drawing in which the fine modelling of the face has now almost disappeared, so that the darker lines stand out too insistently. There is most brilliant and subtle drawing of the eyes, nose, and mouth in the very expressive and beautiful head of the so-called Lady Henegham (Pl. 38),[593] wife of Sir Anthony Hemingham or Heveningham, of Ketteringham in Norfolk, which remains in very excellent condition. She wears a small pendant ornament with one hanging pearl at her neck, and on the breast an upright oval medallion with a figure within a Renaissance framework. It has been suggested that this fine head really represents Margaret Roper, and the features are not unlike those of several members of the More family; but against this attribution must be placed the fact that the drawing, unlike all the other studies for the family picture, is not on white paper. Among the best of the other heads of women are Lady Parker,[594] Lady Lister,[595] Lady Rich,[596] Lady Elyot,[597] Lady Audley, already described (Pl. 37 (1)), an unknown lady, wearing a white cap or bonnet covering the hair and ears and reaching to the chin[598]—a large drawing on white paper, something of the type of the More family, but rather more freely drawn—and Mary Zouch (Pl. 36 (2)).[599] The last-named is one of the most attractive of the whole series. The face, seen in full, is modelled with extreme delicacy and expression. She wears a French circular hood with bands of ornament over her smooth, yellow hair, parted in the middle and covering the ears. Her dress is of black velvet, as noted in Holbein’s handwriting, and the medallion at her breast, surrounded with a Renaissance framework, has an almost obliterated subject, apparently a female figure with flying draperies seated on a rock, possibly Perseus and Andromeda. This drawing is inscribed “M. Souch,” and Sir Richard Holmes, following Wornum, suggests that the drawing represents Joan, wife of Richard Zouch, son of Lord Zouch of Haringworth. It is, however, more probably Mary Zouch, a member of the same family, who was a maid of honour to Jane Seymour, and, after the Queen’s death, received an annuity of £10 on April 6th, 1542, in recognition of her services, which was to be continued until she “was married or otherwise provided for.”[600]

The Berlin Print Room possesses a remarkably fine portrait-drawing of an unknown Englishman,[601] with deep blue eyes, straight brown hair, a scanty beard, and a thoughtful, expressive face, slightly turned to the left. He wears a small flat cap, unornamented, and the usual gown with heavy fur collar. Only slight touches of colour have been used on the eyes, hair, and lips, and the paper has been covered with a pale red wash.

Among the portrait-drawings in the Basel Gallery, some fourteen in all, most of which have been already described, the finest is perhaps that of an unknown young man in a large, broad-brimmed black hat,[602] which is certainly one of the most beautiful of his drawings now existing (Pl. 39). The sitter, a handsome and dignified man, with a large, straight nose, and refined features—evidently a man of culture of the type of Bonifacius Amerbach—is turned to the left, the face seen almost in profile, though both eyes are shown. The lips of the mobile mouth are slightly parted, and the expressive eyes gaze into the distance, as though he were lost in thought. The brown, bushy hair, which covers the ears and falls over the forehead, is drawn with rapid, masterly touches, and the profile of the face stands out with great effect against the dark background formed by the underside of his large hat. The flesh tints are suggested with simple but subtle touches of the chalk. The dress is merely sketched in with a few lines, though the brown fur collar of his coat is sufficiently indicated just where it comes under the beardless chin. This superb drawing, in which the artist has seized upon and set down with unerring insight the finest traits of the sitter’s character, is in black and coloured chalks. The type of face, in the opinion of Woltmann and Dr. Ganz, is distinctly German. From its technique, which, on the one hand, has much in common with the later studies of the Meyer family made for the Darmstadt “Madonna,” and on the other with the drawings for the More Family Group, it may be surmised that this study was made in Basel shortly before Holbein left for his first visit to England. It has much in common, too, with the coloured drawing in Basel of Holbein himself, and it may be noted, as a small point, that the hat the unknown youth is wearing is similar to the one the artist wears, though rather larger, and is of a different fashion from the black head-gear worn by Holbein’s English sitters.

Among the other portraits of unknown personages at Basel are two heads of an Englishman and his wife,[603] and a third, still finer, of a lady wearing the angular English head-dress and black fall, who was evidently a member of the court circle.[604] This drawing, which is also in black and coloured chalks, must be placed among the best of Holbein’s studies of women. It has been conjectured that it represents Lady Carew, and also Lady Guldeford. The equally beautiful drawing of Sir Nicholas Carew[605] has been described already. All the drawings just mentioned form part of the Amerbach Collection, and it may be suggested, though the suggestion is not a very plausible one, that at least those of them which represent English people were taken to Basel by Holbein himself, on one or other of his visits home, and were left behind when he returned to England, together with the sketch-book, also in the Amerbach Collection, which is undoubtedly of the English period; or, on the other hand, they may have been sent over from London to his widow with his personal belongings by his executors after his death.

Altogether apart from their artistic merits, these drawings of Holbein’s are of the utmost historical value, both on account of their number, including as they do so many of the leading characters who played a part in the making of England in Tudor days, and also because of the perfection of their draughtsmanship and the corresponding life-likeness of their portraiture, so that they form true documents in every sense of the word. Holbein’s genius shows us Henry’s ministers and the lords and ladies who surrounded him, just as they were in life, without any attempt at flattery, but with every feature set down with unfaltering truth, and, above all, with a grasp of character which the portrait drawings of no other great master of his period show in the same degree. He has left behind, as a mine of wealth for the use of the student of history, in drawings alone, without taking into account his numerous painted portraits for which no drawings now exist, a series of more than one hundred representations of Tudor men and women. In only one other instance can we turn to a similar series of contemporary portraits—the chalk drawings of French men and women of the same century by the two Clouets, Jean and François, father and son. These, though of the utmost value as historical portraiture, and also of great beauty and even fascination as works of art, fall short of the greatness which stamps Holbein’s work of a like nature. The elder Clouet had not his mastery of drawing; his knowledge was more limited and his means more restricted. His drawings have “a stiffness and dryness which are very far from the flowing and supple handling of the Basle master.”[606] His son had considerably more science. “His drawing in reality is extremely profound, and as exactly calculated as any known. In tracing the human face and all the parts presented by the model, he has the ability of a specialist, whose long practice of an art that is deep rather than wide has enabled him to accumulate a mass of information and experience. He reaches perfection in the proportion of the features, in the exact placing of all the fine fugitive, mobile parts of the face, in the careful study of the extremely subtle relations from which the mass of form draws its solidity, and in skill in constructing the unity of impression of a face and of a type.”[607] He has little or nothing, however, of Holbein’s beauty of style. Holbein’s drawings are matchless in the delicacy of their modelling, every little depression or prominence in the contours of the face being indicated with an exactitude and a simplicity of means unrivalled in work of such nature; and also for the way in which this delicacy of touch in handling the crayon, and subtlety and precision of the strengthening lines with brush or pencil, are combined with the wonderful vigour and sense of life with which each individual drawing is filled. Added to their truthfulness in portraiture there is that remarkable insight into the true nature and feelings of the sitter which is one of the greatest qualities of Holbein’s art. It is owing to the knowledge and mastery which are the basis of these Portrait-Studies—studies usually made with rapidity, but in which nothing essential has been missed by the penetrating eye and unerring hand of the artist—that so perfect a result is obtained with means apparently so slight. Delicacy and strength meet in them in exquisite combination; the flexibility and refinement of his line are always kept well under control, and there is no over-elaboration of detail to the detriment of character. Each drawing bears upon it the stamp of a style, and of a great style, which was Holbein’s own individual possession, in which freedom and truth are tempered and perfected by self-restraint.

To attempt even a list of Holbein’s more important drawings other than his portrait-studies would be quite beyond the scope of this book, in the course of which, however, many of them have been touched upon; but there still remain several which cannot be passed over in silence. Chief among them is the small drawing on parchment, highly finished like a miniature, in the Library, Windsor Castle, which represents the “Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon” (Pl. 40).[608] It is a composition containing no less than thirty-four small figures, and so, after the wall-paintings in the Basel Town Hall and the “Triumphs” of the London Steelyard, is one of the most considerable arrangements of grouping ever attempted by him. King Solomon is seated on a throne on a high daïs approached by a number of steps within a large chamber, the roof of which is supported by slender columns of Renaissance architecture. Behind the throne is suspended a large curtain, and on the steps on either side are placed groups of the elders and long-bearded wise men of Solomon’s kingdom. In the centre the Queen mounts the steps, her hands outstretched as though in wonder and admiration of the great king. In the foreground a procession of her ten ladies, walking two and two, passes towards the left, and on the right are a group of her attendants bearing rich presents, some of them kneeling with uplifted baskets. The drawing is in silver-point, slightly washed with grey and brown, and touched here and there with water-colour; the fruits in one of the baskets are red and green, and some of the draperies and details are touched with dead gold. The background between the pillars is blue powdered with gold stars. The Renaissance architecture of the setting is purer and less florid in style than is the case with many of Holbein’s earlier studies for glass paintings. The figures of the women are gracefully conceived and grouped, and the heads of the men have character and expression. In its general arrangement the upper half of this miniature drawing recalls the “Rehoboam” wall-painting in the Basel Town Hall, though the setting is more richly treated; while in the general gracefulness of its design it is Italian in feeling, and has close affinity to the “Triumph of Riches” drawing for the decoration of the Steelyard. It was probably done at about the same date as the latter, perhaps as a present for the King, the subject having been chosen as conveying a subtle and flattering suggestion that Henry and Solomon were alike in their possession of great wisdom. It is finished with such minute care that it does not seem likely that it is merely the preparatory sketch for some larger picture or wall-painting. There is no record of any wall-decoration of this subject, either in the Steelyard or at Whitehall, though Holbein may have had some idea when at work upon it that it might serve for such a purpose afterwards if it met with the King’s approval; or, on the other hand, it may be a miniature copy from one of his frescoes in grisaille, which has disappeared, made by Holbein himself as a gift for his royal master. It was at one time in the Arundel Collection, and while there was engraved by Hollar. In the inventory of that collection it is entered as “Regina de Saba in miniatura chiaroscuro.” There is a picture in the Dresden Gallery representing the “Death of Virginia,” which appears to be an early copy of another of Holbein’s lost frescoes in grisaille, which has many points in common with the “Queen of Sheba” miniature painting, and is carried out in a similar scheme of colouring. Both were, no doubt, the work of his second English residence.[609]

Another important drawing, of an earlier date, in the Städel Institut at Frankfurt, represents a transport ship about to put out to sea.[610] It is a three-masted vessel, with high poop, crowded with small figures, among them a troop of landsknechte, one of whom stands in the stern, a fine figure, holding aloft a banner which flaps in the wind. Others play drum and trumpets, some hold pikes, and one of them embraces a girl. The anchor has been hauled up, and most of the sailors are at work in the rigging unfurling the sails; but several of them are taking parting drinks from large jars, even at the masthead, and one of the number is already overcome with sea-sickness. Below, on the left, a boat with two rowers is pulling vigorously towards the ship, either to put on board a late comer or to fetch off those for the shore. The exact date of this drawing is uncertain. It is possible that Holbein saw some such vessel during his visit to Amerbach in the south of France, or that he made it a year or two later at Antwerp on his way to England for the first time.

His skill in the representation of animals is shown in a number of drawings. There are some fine horses in the “Triumph of Riches” study, and also in the “Samuel and Saul” and the “Sapor and Valerian” drawings for the Basel Town Hall paintings, as well as in the woodcut of “The Ploughman” in the “Dance of Death” series and in others of his woodcut illustrations; the latter also showing good studies of sheep, dogs, and other animals. The early drawings of a lamb and a bat have been described on a previous page.[611]