Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 -- Criticism and interpretation; Painters -- Germany -- Biography
It remained for a Swedish critic, M. S. Larpent, finally to re-establish
the identity of the sitter as that Count of Moretta mentioned in Wake’s
letter in the seventeenth century. In a pamphlet published in
Christiania in 1881, _Sur le Portrait de Morett_, he proved conclusively
that the Dresden picture represents Charles de Solier, Sieur de Morette.
M. Larpent drew attention to the fact that the drawing for the head was
once in the possession of Richardson, the painter, and that at his sale
in 1746 it was included in his catalogue as “One Holbein, sieur de
Moret, one of the French hostages in England,” this, no doubt, being the
traditional title which had remained with the drawing since it was in
the Arundel collection. It has been suggested that Hollar’s engraving
was done neither from the Dresden picture nor from the drawing, as it
shows considerable differences in the dress and details, and is circular
in shape, while the inscription is “Holbein pinxit” not “delineavit,”
indicating that it was done from a painting and not a drawing, and thus
proving that the Earl of Arundel possessed another portrait of Morette,
which has disappeared. In this connection Sir Sidney Colvin draws
attention to the print by Hollar of an unknown man after a painting by
Holbein formerly in the Earl of Arundel’s collection, which he thinks
represents Jean de Dinteville.[145] “Now, this print of Hollar’s,” he
says, “is an exact companion to his other print from the ‘Mr. Morett’ in
the Arundel collection. Both are small rounds, apparently taken from
paintings of almost miniature size, such as Holbein is in several
instances known to have made of persons who had also sat to him for
full-sized portraits. I conclude that he had painted two such companion
miniatures, besides his larger pictures, of the two successive French
envoys, Dinteville and Morette, and that both came into the possession
of the Earl of Arundel.”[146]
Footnote 145:
This is the print, already mentioned (see p. 44), in connection with
the fine Windsor drawing to which Miss Hervey first drew attention as
a possible likeness of Dinteville.
Footnote 146:
In a letter to _The Times_, 11th September 1890.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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