Hermann Hillebrandt de Wedigh

In 1533 Holbein was in London painting the German merchants of the Steelyard, the walled Hanseatic trading post on the Thames where men from Cologne and Hamburg ran their business. This is one of them, in a heavy dark cloak, his gloves in one hand. We call him Hermann Hillebrandt Wedigh, but that is more than the picture can prove. What is certain is only his family and his age. The merchants of this clan were known by the arms on their signet rings, a chevron and three willow leaves, and it is that ring, not any signature, that ties this calm young man to the Wedighs of Cologne.