# Self-Portrait [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Coloured chalks and pen, heightened with gold, 230 x 180 mm ## Commentary Although the gold background is of a later date, the wording of the Latin inscription at the top of the picture is presumably authentic. According to this, the picture is a self portrait of Johannes Holbein of Basel at the age of 45. The painter died not long after in London, probably of the plague. Holbein arrests the viewer with his direct gaze, which suggests he was looking into a mirror. An unusual feature is the use of blue pastel, for which there is scarcely any precedent. Thanks to the inscription, the colour-based composition and fine modeling of the face, the picture acquires the character of a painting and looks not so much like a preparatory study for a panel painting but rather like an original portrait. ## Related artworks - [Adam and Eve]() - [Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus]() - [Charitas]() - [Charles Brandon]() - [Christ as the True Light]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan \(detail\)]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan]() - [Courtier of Henry VIII and his Wife]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()