Holbein

“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 Guardian A Spectator Art Book of the Year 2025 A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025 “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