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_Oils. The Louvre_

In the Munich Gallery there is another portrait in oils which has
undergone, if possible, still more atrocious treatment than Kratzer's;
yet, like it, still keeps enough of its original charm to rivet attention
in any company. This latter is one of the most striking of the
half-dozen portraits of Sir Bryan Tuke, which all claim, with more or
less of probability, to be paintings by Holbein. And certainly in the
years when Sir Bryan was Treasurer of the King's Household it would be
natural that the painter, whose salary he regularly disbursed, should
gladly oblige him to his utmost.

But the Munich portrait also shows a far deeper bond of interests than
one of money. The undercurrent of their natures ran in a groove of more
than common sympathy; and to an analyst, such as Holbein was, the
reflections behind these inscrutable eyes were full of unusual
attraction.

Myself, I feel convinced, for more than one reason, that it is a work of
some years later. But as a consensus of authorities places it during
this visit, the picture is noticed here. It gains rather than loses by
reproduction;--since the painting now shows a strange disagreeable
colour most unlike the carnations of Holbein. But the composition is
unmistakable (Plate 24). Between the sitter and the green-curtained
background stands perhaps the ghastliest of all Holbein's skeletons,--one
hand on his scythe, the other grimly pointing at the nearly-spent sands
of the hour-glass. Below the latter is a tablet on which, in Latin, are
the words of Job: "My short life, does it not come to an end soon?" and
the signature without the date. Sir Bryan wears a fur-trimmed doublet
with gold buttons; the gold-patterned sleeves revealed by the black silk
gown, also trimmed with fur. On a massive gold chain he wears a cross of
great richness, enamelled with the pierced Hands and Feet. Fine lawn is
at throat and wrists; and in one hand he holds his gloves.

Illustration: PLATE 24
SIR BRYAN TUKE
_Oils. Munich Gallery_

* * * * *

Before the researches of Eduard His, it used to be sometimes said that
Holbein had virtually deserted his family when he left Basel in 1526. We
know now, however, that whatever were the moral wrongs which he suffered
or committed, he never forsook the duty of providing for his wife and
children in no ungenerous proportion to his means.

The records show that the fruit of his two years' ind