Painter, book illustrator, product designer: a show in London shows how the artist Hans Holbein the Younger established himself at the court of Henry VIII.
Portraitists in Henry VIII’s time had a dangerous job. If they did not paint in a sufficiently advantageous manner, they could arouse the autocrat’s displeasure, which led to a loss of reputation and dramatic economic consequences for other customers as well. However, if something was embellished too much, like the bridal portrait of Anne of Cleves that Hans Holbein the Younger painted to initiate Henry’s fourth marriage on the Lower Rhine, then it could cost you your head. In this case not that of the artist, but that of Henry’s Prime Minister Thomas Cromwell, who felt his ruler’s disappointment with the lady appearing in the flesh in London and his opposition to the marriage with the executioner’s ax on his neck.