Holbein

Elizabeth Goldring is an honorary Professor at the University of Warwick and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society. She is the author of Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the World of Elizabethan Art.

An Engelsberg Ideas Book of the Year 2025A New Statesman Book of the Year 2025A Country Life Book of the Year 2025“Engaging and beautiful.”—Katherine Harvey, Times (UK)“[Holbein’s] great achievement was to bring before us the living, breathing men and women who plotted, suffered, contrived and triumphed through the most terrifying decades of English history. And it is Goldring’s achievement to show us the process by which this magic happened.”—Kathryn Hughes, The GuardianA Spectator Art Book of the Year 2025A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025“Goldring’s . . . great strength is her scholastic ability to interrogate the documentary evidence that informs the production of Holbein’s work, using it to unpick the where and the when, and to correct or qualify assertions that have long gone unchallenged.”—Franny Moyle, Art Newspaper“This fine book gives us the wider picture, including his metalwork designs. There is hardly an illustration that one can look at without murmuring ‘heavens, that’s good.’”—Huon Mallalieu, Country Life“To Goldring’s credit, it is hard to imagine that another biography will be required for quite some time.”—David Eskerdjian, The Oldie“It is hard to imagine how this biography could be bettered—it is bold without being eccentric, unfailingly alert to context and possibility, and entertainingly readable throughout. The book itself is a thing of beauty, adorned with over 250 high-quality and meticulously placed colour illustrations. It is a work of craftsmanship of which Holbein himself might have approved.”—Peter Marshall, Literary Review“Such a brilliant piece of historiography, and illustrative of her complete mastery of both the immediate sources and the wider circumstantial evidence for Holbein’s life and work.”—Mathew Lyons, Broken Compass“Goldring, with an extraordinary command of the archives, assiduously charts Holbein’s professional career.”—Engelsberg Ideas“A magnificent biography of Hans Holbein astounds.”—Bookseller“A work of consummate scholarship.”—Michael Prodger, New Statesman“Meticulously detailed, judicious and perceptive, it will surely prove the definitive account of Holbein’s life, and of the life and afterlife of his work, for many years to come.”—Mathew Lyons, Spectator“Goldring gives full weight to Holbein’s inventiveness as a designer and a worker in precious metals, while breathing life into the individuals whom he portrayed and sketched.”—Nicholas Cranfield, Church Times“A superbly written and magnificently produced tribute to an artist who was far more than a Court painter for Henry VIII.”—Michael Hall, Country Life“An immaculate piece of scholarship wrapped up in the most handsome of volumes.”—Michael Prodger, Engelsberg Ideas“Fantastic. . . . Definitive.”—Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art (podcast)“Goldring considers Holbein from numerous angles, placing him in the thick of the political and religious turmoil of his times. While unafraid to ask questions to which there are no clear answers, with hundreds of judicious touches she paints a fittingly masterful portrait of an enigmatic and supremely gifted man.”—Susan Owens, World of Interiors“This is a biography that shuns the temptations of romanticism or novelistic imaginings without ever losing sight of the human at its centre. . . . What is remarkable is the extent to which Holbein himself emerges as a living figure.”—Tim Smith-Laing, Apollo“[Goldring’s] handsome and superbly illustrated book is intelligent and well written, and scrupulously examines the documentary evidence.”—Jeffrey Meyers, The Article“Goldring has produced a superb biography. . . . The Holbein who emerges from her book is a well-rounded figure . . . able to produce work of such sensitivity that he won commissions from some of the greatest patrons in Europe.”—Kate Heard, LRB“A solid, accessible account of Holbein’s life and art.”—Alexander Marr, Burlington Magazine