One of the best ways many Shakespeare scholars use to explore the real historical counterparts to the historical figures that show up in Shakespeare’s plays is to examine what they looked like. Centuries before the advent of photography, when you wanted to capture someone’s likeness and preserve it, history used paintings. People like Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Edward VI and many others were all given this kind of immortality when they were painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, who is arguably the best portrait artist in history. 

Hans Holbein the Younger showed promise from a very young age as a portraitist and was encouraged by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder who was also an artist, to pursue his unique talents. While firmly a citizen of Switzerland, Holbein would routinely undertake the long commute from Basil, Switzerland to England as well as France to paint some of the world’s most famous figures, many of whom would find new life in the performances of plays by William Shakespeare. He could not have known in the early 16th century that just a few decades after his death a young playwright would give the world a whole new reason to study his paintings, but nonetheless, Hans Holbein has a place in the study of the life of William Shakespeare, and indeed the life of England herself, so for this week, our guest, Susan Abernethy is here to introduce us to Hans Holbein and how a young boy working in his father’s shop would grow up to be friends with, and the official portraitist for, some of the most notorious figures in history as well as from Shakespeare’s plays.

Susan Abernethy has a degree in history and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.  Her blog, The Freelance History Writer has been continuously publishing historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and Women’s history.  She is currently working on a biography of a prominent Stuart royal.