A Hanseatic Merchant, 1538
Oil on oak panel, 19 1/2 x 15 3/8 in. (49.6 x 39 cm)
Gift of Charles S. Payson, B.A. 1921
1977.187
The merchants of the Hanseatic League, a powerful German trading organization, established their English headquarters in the Steelyard (Stahlhof) in London. Holbein was commissioned to produce group and individual portraits for the Guild, for which he adopted a simplified format presenting the sitter full-face against an unadorned green or blue background. These portraits may have been intended to decorate the walls of the Guild Hall at the Stahlhof. The identity of the sitter in this painting, indicated by the armorial crest on his signet ring and by his age (33) inscribed across the background, has not yet been ascertained.
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