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*Hans Holbein, the Younger (1497-1543)
st. thomas.
Dated, lower centre: 15.27
Bears old inscription on the verso: von..son der zu/ vor... burg gestorben ist/...
Pen and black ink and grey wash, heightened with white, on paper washed brown. Within a black ink border.
204 by 105mm.
Provenance:
Leo Blumenreich, Berlin.
Literature:
W. Hugelshofer, 'A Set of Drawings of the Apostles by Hans Holbein the Younger', Old Master Drawings, no.13, June 1929, p.1, illus. pl.3.;
J. K. Rowlands, The Age of Durer and Holbein, exhib. cat., London, The British Museum, 1988, under cat.no.196;
J. K. Rowlands, Drawings by German Artists in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 2 vols., London 1993, under cat.318.
Though they were not all purchased at the same time, Franz Koenigs came to own seven of the eight known studies of Apostles from this series by Holbein the Younger; the other six are all now in Moscow (see introduction). The eighth drawing is in the Print Room of the British Museum (see Rowlands, op.cit, 1993, cat.318). Rowlands notes that five of the drawings are dated 1527 and therefore the series must belong to Holbein's first English period. Although their attribution to Holbein was rejected by Paul Ganz, Rowlands is decisive in accepting them as Holbein's work, noting their 'striking quality and character', and making a strong comparison between the depiction of these figures and those in the Passion Altarpiece, now in the Kunstmuseum Basel, which he believes Holbein executed very shortly before his departure for England. Holbein left for England in August 1526, bearing with him letters of recommendation from Erasmus, and stayed there for two years before returning to Basel once more, prior to his permanent move back to England. When Walter Hugelshofer described the drawings in 1929 (loc.cit.), he was aware of seven of the eight drawings currently known, but at that date Koenigs owned only two of them, those of St. Peter and St. John, and the present drawing was still with Leo Blumenreich in Berlin; the drawings of Saints Bartholomew, James the Great, James the Less, and Matthew were in the possession of Julius Bohler in Munich, and the British Museum St. Andrew, which came from Sir Thomas Lawrence, the Woodburn Sale and the Philipps-Fenwick Collection, had yet to come to light. Hugelshofer considered the drawings to be independent finished works, perhaps executed on commission.
Mention should also be made of another incomplete series of eight drawings of the Apostles in the Musee de Lille, which came from the Wicar collection. These drawings are smaller in scale, but are executed in similar media to the present work. Four are monogrammed: HH and three are dated 1518. T. Muchall-Viebrook was the first to publish this series as Holbein in 1931; the attribution was supported by Schmid and Reinhardt and doubted by Ganz. John Rowlands considers it plausible that these drawings are the work of the young Holbein (see Rowlands op. cit., for these references).