Exhibition: Holbein at the Tudor Court

This exhibition brings together over 100 works from Henry VIII’s court, including drawings, paintings and miniatures by Hans Holbein the Younger drawn from the Royal Collection, one of the most important surviving groups of the artist’s work.

Together, they will the largest group of Holbein’s works from the Royal Collection to be exhibited in over 30 years.

The exhibition highlights works from Holbein’s time at court in the first half of the 16th century, when he rose to become the most important artist in Tudor England. This exhibition tells the story of Holbein’s career in England, from itinerant artist to king’s painter, showing how the vibrant international court culture he found on his arrival in London formed a fertile ground for his future success.

At the heart of the exhibition is over 40 portrait drawings, which were probably acquired by Henry VIII at the artist’s death. These careful sketches, made in preparation for finished paintings, were taken during personal sittings, when Holbein sought to capture the essential features of his subject. Their survival allows us to come face to face with some of the key figures of the Tudor court, from Anne Boleyn to Sir Thomas More.

While these extraordinary drawings cannot be on permanent display for conservation reasons, the exhibition will give visitors the opportunity to study them up close and see for themselves the exquisite skill that captured the imagination of the Tudor court almost 500 years ago.

The exhibition also explores Holbein’s arrival in England in 1526, and his first works for Sir Thomas More’s learned humanist circle. It shows his broadening appeal in the 1530s as he became the most sought-after portraitist at the Tudor court. Works will include drawings, paintings, miniatures and book illustrations by the artist and tells the stories of his sitters through the portraits Holbein produced. Among them is a beautiful drawing of Mary Shelton, later Lady Heveningham, a cousin of Anne Boleyn and friend of poets such as Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Shelton, herself a poet, was one of the compilers of a significant anthology of Tudor verse.

The final section of the exhibition shows how, after his death, Holbein’s work influenced later Tudor artists such as Hans Eworth. Among the works displayed in this gallery will be Holbein’s drawings of Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, and a large portrait of Henry VIII and his family by an unknown artist who looks back to Holbein’s example, which had defined the image and faces of the Tudor court.