Hans of Antwerp

Hans of Antwerp was an English-based Antwerp merchant and agent — probably Hans Jabach — painted by Holbein in London around 1532, shortly after his second arrival in England. As a fellow German-speaking Netherlandish merchant in London, Hans would have been part of the Steelyard community that became Holbein's primary patronage network in his early English years before Henry VIII took notice of him. The portrait belongs to the concentrated sequence of merchant portraits from Holbein's early London period, works that established the type of the confident, materially successful male sitter that would define his English career.

Holbein employs his characteristic compressed format — the sitter occupying most of the picture plane against a plain, deep green background — with a carved stone ledge providing the spatial boundary at the lower edge. The hands, carefully delineated and holding gloves, are as important as the face in communicating the sitter's identity and confidence.