pictures, though not nearly as many as have been called by his name.

About a year after Holbein went to Basle he was called to Lucerne to
decorate a house, and he executed other works there and at Altorf. In
1519, when he had been three years in Basle, he became a citizen of that
town and a member of its guild of painters. His works at Basle were mostly
decorative, and he painted few easel pictures there.

Holbein married a widow with one son; her name was Elizabeth Schmid. She
had a very bad temper. It is said that she made Holbein's life so
miserable that he left Basle for that reason. He visited her sometimes,
and always gave her money, but lived away from her. In 1526 Holbein went
to England, and his friend Erasmus said that he went because he had so
little to do in Basle. He carried a letter to Sir Thomas More, who
received him with great kindness, and the artist made many portraits of
Sir Thomas and his family. There is a story about one of these portraits
of that nobleman. He had refused to be present at the marriage of Anne
Boleyn to King Henry VIII., and she never forgave him. On the day that
More was executed she looked at one of Holbein's portraits of the
ex-chancellor and exclaimed, "Ah, me! the man seems to be still alive;"
and seizing the picture she threw it into the street.

In 1530 Holbein returned to Basle to complete some unfinished frescoes,
and this being done he went again to London. About this time he began to
be employed by the king, and did many pictures for him from time to time.
In 1538 Henry sent Holbein to Brussels to make a portrait of the Duchess
of Milan, of whom the king was thinking for his fourth wife. No citizen of
Basle was allowed to enter the service of a foreign sovereign without the
consent of the council, so in 1538 the artist went home to ask permission
to serve the King of England. Great efforts were made to keep him in
Basle, but at last he received permission to remain two years in England:
the artist never went again to Basle. Henry VIII. became fond of Holbein,
and was generous to him, even giving him a painting-room in the palace of
Whitehall.

In 1539 the artist was sent to paint a portrait of Anne of Cleves, whom
the king married the next year. It has been said that the picture was so
flattering that when the king saw the lady he was disappointed; we know
that he was soon divorced from her.

In 1543 the plague raged in London, and on the 7th of October Holbein
prep