(b ?Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1484/5; d Strasbourg, Sept. 1545). German painter, printmaker, and designer. The nickname ‘Grien’ (green) perhaps referred to his liking for the colour. He probably trained with Dürer in Nuremberg, but his brilliant colour, expressive use of distortion, and taste for the gruesome (he was fascinated by witchcraft) bring him closer in spirit to his other great German contemporary, Grünewald. His output was varied and extensive, including religious works, allegories and mythologies, portraits, designs for stained glass and tapestries, and a large body of graphic work, particularly book illustrations. He was active mainly in Strasbourg, but from 1512 to 1517 he lived in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, where he worked on his masterpiece, the high altar for Freiburg Cathedral (unusually for an artist of the time, he came from a scholarly family and his brother was a professor at Freiburg University).