Self-portrait

Holbein's Self-Portrait (1542) at the Uffizi is one of the very few paintings in which he depicted himself — a figure who appears in the backgrounds of others' portraits but rarely as the primary subject. The self-portrait, painted in the final year of his life (he died of plague in London in 1543), shows a man of forty-five who has achieved extraordinary success while remaining an émigré, perpetually foreign in the courts he served. The direct gaze, the careful recording of his own features, and the slight diagonal composition create an image of self-knowledge without vanity — appropriate to a painter who had spent his career looking at others with ruthless precision and could now apply that precision to himself.

The frank, unidealized treatment of his own features demonstrates Holbein's commitment to truthful observation, with the warm flesh tones and precise drawing typical of his mature technique.