ndon was the
true stage for such a genius as Holbein's, and More had written that
he would gladly do all he could to further the painter's success if
he should decide to visit England. More himself called Holbein "a
marvellous artist" for his portrait of Erasmus, and could not but be
delighted with the beautiful little woodcut which opened Froben's
edition of his own _Utopia_.

This illustration represents More and his only son seated with AEgidius,
or Peter Gillis, in the latter's own garden at Antwerp, listening to the
tale of _Utopia_ from the ancient comrade of Amerigo Vespucci. And very
likely Holbein himself sat in this garden, in the late summer of 1526,
when he was passing through Antwerp to England. He had a letter of
introduction from Erasmus to AEgidius, as also to the host who was
expecting him in England--Sir Thomas More.

Van Mander says that long before this the Earl of Arundel, when pausing
at Basel, had been so much pleased with Holbein's works in that city
that he had urged the painter to forsake it for London. But it would
pretty surely have been the promise of More's influence which actually
induced him to try his fortune so far afield. And by the autumn of 1526
he was one of that happy company which the genial soul of More drew
around him in his new home in "Chelsea Village," where Beaufort Row now
has its north end. Here the master's love of every art, and aptitude in
affairs, filled his hospitable mansion with wit and music and joyous
strenuousness. Here he was the idol of his family, as well as the King's
friend. Henry himself must surely have shuddered could he have pictured
that face, over which thought and humour were ever chasing one another
like sun and shadow on the lawn, black above London Bridge and flung at
last from it into the Thames only a few years hence. Now it turned to
his own all life and loyalty, as he laid his arm around More's shoulders
while they wandered between the garden beds of Chelsea.

Early in 1527, probably, Holbein had finished the fine portrait of his
host, which is now in Mr. Huth's collection. The study for this oil
painting is among the Windsor drawings (Plate 20), as also one for
the large family picture now lost, if indeed it was ever completed by
Holbein; a matter of some doubt, notwithstanding Van Mander's account
of it in the possession of the art-collector Van Loo. An outline sketch
of it, or for it, he certainly made. And that precious pen-and-ink
outli