above all things.

Holbein's wife, and he married early, was a perfect Xantippe, too shrewd
to be despised, and not handsome enough to be admired. In the library at
Basel is a family picture of Holbein, in which she is introduced, almost
unconscious of the two children about her; but Holbein very shrewdly
forgot to paint himself there. But he took care of the interests of his
family, and obtained them a pension from the magistrates of Basel,
during his stay in England. This pension was paid for past services, and
in order to induce him finally to fix his residence in Switzerland.

The absence of matrimonial felicity was probably an additional motive
for Holbein to seek employment as an itinerant painter. He visited
several Swiss towns, but certainly never saw Luther and Melancthon, so
that the portraits of Luther and Melancthon exhibited in Italy, Germany,
and England, as works of Holbein, cannot be genuine; and it is very
improbable that he should have copied the works of Lucas Cranach, who
several times painted the portraits of those lights of the reformation.
Erasmus was frequently painted by Holbein; and as those portraits were
sent as presents to the friends of Erasmus, Holbein's name became known
all over Europe.

Holbein came to England in the year 1526, and Sir Thomas More wrote to
Erasmus that he would take care of him. Sir Thomas received him into his
own house at Chelsea, and there Henry VIII. saw him one day, when paying
a visit to the former. He took him instantly into his service, gave him
apartments in the royal palace, and a salary of 30_l_. a-year.
Holbein's long residence in the house of Sir Thomas More had a good
effect upon him; for although Erasmus describes the women of England as
"nymphae divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles," yet Holbein seems to have
resisted those temptations in London, which rendered his conduct at
Basel so reprehensible. Holbein twice revisited Switzerland, once in
1526, the second and last time in 1538: the zealots had just destroyed
all the images; and even some painters, infected with the spirit of the
age, had declared they would rather starve, than break the second
commandment. In England the same work of devastation took place; but
Henry VIII., notwithstanding, gave Holbein abundance of work, as he had
to paint all his royal consorts in succession, besides a number of
portraits for English noblemen.

His sketches of heads, now existing at Kensington, of various people