![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Retitled: Musings on Holbein's Wife
Sep. 24th, 2004 06:21 pm...I always thought he was some kind of coldhearted bastard for leaving his wife and kids in Basle. But, now, maybe, I think I might be wrong. He was romantic, somehow.
I've always loved this painting, done while he was in England the first time. I didn't even know there was an earlier one, only slightly different. Same dress. Same girl. A baby... I always thought she was his mistress, or something.
Compare her to the Darmstadt Madonna, and the Solothurn Madonna and its probable model study (scroll down to "Head of a woman" and "the Solothurn Madonna"). These are clearly the same woman, though some are idealized. She might even be the model for St Urusla. There's the small, pointed-but-squared chin with its delicate cleft, the same nose (mostly, it's seen from several angles and at several ages...), the high round hairline and goldenred hair, the same smallish downcast eyes, the same delicate little mouth and rounded, merry face and cheeks. He must have sketched her hundreds of times. He certainly painted her dozens of times.
Then, there's this painting. It's probably Holbein and wife around the time they first met. And the famous family portrait, from years later, in which his wife looks tired and worn, but... familiar. Compare her eyes to the model for the Solothurn Madonna, then compare these two images to the rest.
The mystery woman is his wife. No mistake. Or so I beleive. The web is wonderful, in that I can compare these pictures in a way I never had the opportunity to do before. I'm certian, as it's SO OBVIOUS once you put them up side-by-side, even the idealized divine images.
ETA: this woman (scroll down to "presumed portrait of artist's wife") is NOT his wife. Looks NOTHING like her. Face is wrong. She actually looks a good deal like Holbein, so I'm guessing a female relative, perhaps a sister.
What happened to his wife? We don't really know who she was, or when they met. She might be the saucy young Eve in the 1517 painting, and Adam certainly looks like a younger, less beardy Holbein.So, let's just say that he started sketching and painter her in 1517. The last we know of her is the family portrait in 1528, and the oft-repeated statement that he left her and their children in Basle in 1532, appreantly for good.
I wonder. I wonder who this woman was to him, why he left them there? Was it that he just could not stay with her or if she just would not leave Basel? He certainly was inspired by her, she modeled for him, she bore him children.
Oh, to know the truth of it.
I've always loved this painting, done while he was in England the first time. I didn't even know there was an earlier one, only slightly different. Same dress. Same girl. A baby... I always thought she was his mistress, or something.
Compare her to the Darmstadt Madonna, and the Solothurn Madonna and its probable model study (scroll down to "Head of a woman" and "the Solothurn Madonna"). These are clearly the same woman, though some are idealized. She might even be the model for St Urusla. There's the small, pointed-but-squared chin with its delicate cleft, the same nose (mostly, it's seen from several angles and at several ages...), the high round hairline and goldenred hair, the same smallish downcast eyes, the same delicate little mouth and rounded, merry face and cheeks. He must have sketched her hundreds of times. He certainly painted her dozens of times.
Then, there's this painting. It's probably Holbein and wife around the time they first met. And the famous family portrait, from years later, in which his wife looks tired and worn, but... familiar. Compare her eyes to the model for the Solothurn Madonna, then compare these two images to the rest.
The mystery woman is his wife. No mistake. Or so I beleive. The web is wonderful, in that I can compare these pictures in a way I never had the opportunity to do before. I'm certian, as it's SO OBVIOUS once you put them up side-by-side, even the idealized divine images.
ETA: this woman (scroll down to "presumed portrait of artist's wife") is NOT his wife. Looks NOTHING like her. Face is wrong. She actually looks a good deal like Holbein, so I'm guessing a female relative, perhaps a sister.
What happened to his wife? We don't really know who she was, or when they met. She might be the saucy young Eve in the 1517 painting, and Adam certainly looks like a younger, less beardy Holbein.So, let's just say that he started sketching and painter her in 1517. The last we know of her is the family portrait in 1528, and the oft-repeated statement that he left her and their children in Basle in 1532, appreantly for good.
I wonder. I wonder who this woman was to him, why he left them there? Was it that he just could not stay with her or if she just would not leave Basel? He certainly was inspired by her, she modeled for him, she bore him children.
Oh, to know the truth of it.
