Where can you see Hans Holbein the Younger in New York?

At the Frick Collection: Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hermann von Wedigh III. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

What is Hans Holbein the Younger's most famous work in New York?

Sir Thomas More, of 1527, at the Frick Collection. The Lord Chancellor to be, unshaven, in fur and red velvet sleeves with a gold chain of office. Every bristle and every fold is there, and so is the man.

When and where was Hans Holbein the Younger born?

About 1497, at Augsburg, Germany. Hans Holbein the Younger died in 1543, at London, England, aged about 46.

What is Hans Holbein the Younger known for?

Painter to King Henry VIII of England. Came to England with an introduction from Erasmus. His sitters More and Cromwell were both executed. Hans Holbein the Younger was a German painter, of the Northern Renaissance.

Painter, 1497 to 1543

Hans Holbein the Younger

Holbein painted the court of Henry VIII so exactly that we still see the Tudors through his eyes. Two of his greatest portraits are in one room in New York, hung as a pair by a collector with a sense of history.

Born: 1497, Augsburg, Germany
Died: 1543, London, England
Movement: Northern Renaissance
In New York: 3 works in 2 museums

Where to see Hans Holbein the Younger in New York

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

Frick Collection2 works

Sir Thomas More
1527
The Lord Chancellor to be, unshaven, in fur and red velvet sleeves with a gold chain of office. Every bristle and every fold is there, and so is the man.
Thomas Cromwell
1532 to 1533
The king's minister in black, seated at a table with his papers, his small eyes fixed on something outside the frame.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art1 work

Hermann von Wedigh III
1532
A young merchant of Cologne, one of the German traders in London who gave Holbein his first work on his return, against a blue ground with his book and gloves.

The life of Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein was born in Augsburg about 1497, the son of a painter, and made his name in Basel. He came to England in 1526 with a letter from Erasmus to Thomas More, went home, and returned for good in 1532. He became painter to the king and died in London in 1543, probably of the plague.

More, who would not accept the king's break with Rome, was beheaded in 1535. Cromwell, who managed that break, followed him in 1540. Henry Clay Frick bought their portraits three years apart and hung them either side of his chimneypiece, where they have looked past each other ever since.

What to know

Painter to King Henry VIII of England
Came to England with an introduction from Erasmus
His sitters More and Cromwell were both executed

Born: About 1497, Augsburg, Germany
Died: 1543, London, England