Ambrosius Holbein Biography

Ambrosius Holbein was the elder son of the German painter Hans Holbein the Elder and an elder brother of the famous artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Born in about 1494 in Augsburg, he got his professional training from his father. In 1514 Ambrosius left his father's workshop in Augsburg and started an independent work in the monastery in Sanct-George in Stein-on-Rein. In 1516, he settled in Basel with his younger brother Hans Holbein the Younger. They had many small commissions for engravings and woodcuts for Basel publishers, religious paintings and portraits.

Judging by the Portrait of a Young Man from the Hermitage, Ambrosius could have become a great master, but for his early death.