Holbein's use of silverpoint in this early drawing follows that of his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, a talented portraitist himself. Although the younger Holbein went on to become a prolific and renowned portraitist in London, he produced relatively few portraits in Basel. Jakob Meyer, a senior official and sometime mayor of Basel, became one of Holbein's most important early patrons, commissioning a double portrait of himself and his wife, Dorothea, for which this is one of the two studies. It is the preparatory drawing for Holbein's oil portrait of Dorothea Meyer. Holbein later painted the work known as the Darmstadt Madonna, which portrays Jakob and Dorothea Meyer with their family and the Madonna and Child. Meyer's first wife, Magdalena Baer (d. 1511), was also included. Holbein drew a second study of Dorothea for the later work, this time in chalk. Reference

• Stephanie Buck, Hans Holbein, Cologne: Könemann, 1999, ISBN 3829025831, pp. 13–17.)