Portrait of Hans Herbst (Herbster)

The man in this 1516 portrait was, at the time, the most sought-after painter in Basel: Hans Herbst, often spelled Herbster, who ran the busy workshop that took in young artists arriving to work for the city's printers. Ambrosius Holbein had just joined that shop as a journeyman, so this is a newcomer's likeness of the master who was giving him work. Herbst was then in his forties and would live on for decades, well past 1550, long after the far younger painter recording him here had died. He looks out steadily, in the plain dark dress of a Basel craftsman rather than a courtier. The panel later passed through an English private collection, the Earl of Northbrook's, before returning to Basel, the city where both painter and sitter had made their careers.