Henry Holiday
Encyclopedia
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
designer, illustrator and sculptor. He is considered to be a member of the Pre-Raphaelite school of art.
Early years and training
Holiday was born in London. He showed an early aptitude for art and was given lessons by William Cave Thomas. He attended Leigh's art academyHeatherley School of Fine Art
The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Mathews Leigh . Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's...
(where a fellow student was Frederick Walker
Frederick Walker (painter)
Frederick Walker was an English social realist painter and illustrator described by Sir John Everett Millais as "the greatest artist of the century".__NOEDITSECTION__-Early Life and training:...
) and in 1855, at the age of 15, was admitted to the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
. Through his friendship with Albert Moore
Albert Joseph Moore
Albert Joseph Moore was an English painter, known for his depictions of langorous female figures set against the luxury and decadence of the classical world....
and Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter-Biography:...
he was introduced to the artists Rosetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, Burne Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
and William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
of the "Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood". This movement was to be pivotal in his future artistic and political life.
In that same year, 1855, Holiday made a journey to the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
. This was to be the first of many trips to the area, where he would often holiday for long periods of time. Whilst in the Lake District, he spent much of his time sketching the views which were to be seen from the various hills and mountains. He wrote, "For concentrated loveliness, I know nothing that can quite compare with the lakes and mountains of Westmorland, Cumberland and Lancashire."
Paintings
Holiday worked in both oils and watercolours. In 1858, his first picture, a landscape painting, was exhibited at the Royal Academy and immediately sold - from that year his work was frequently shown at the Academy and elsewhere. Other pictures include:- The Burgess of Calais (1859).
- The Rhine Maidens (1879). The subject matter was taken from Wagner's opera Das RheingoldDas Rheingoldis the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
. In order to properly visualise the picture, Holiday modelled the 3 Rhine maidens in clay and placed them in a tank of blue-green tinted water together with clay "rocks". - Dante and Beatrice, exhibited at the Grosvenor GalleryGrosvenor GalleryThe Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé...
in 1883. In 1881, Holiday had travelled to FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in order to make studies for this picture, and carried out meticulous research to ensure that the correct buildings and architectural features were present. He also created rough clay models of some of the buildings to set the scene. The pigeons in the picture were painted by John Trivett NettleshipJohn Trivett NettleshipJohn Trivett Nettleship was an English artist, known as a painter of animals and in particular lions, and author.-Life:...
.
- "Charity", a stained glass window design (1887, Royal Academy), "Terpsichore", "Cleopatra", "Sleep", "The Lute player", "The Temple of Philae", "Hawes Water" (1918, watercolour) and many others.
Holiday spent a lot of time at the studios of Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
, where groups of artists would meet to discuss, exchange and pool ideas. The influence of Burne-Jones can be seen in Holiday's work.
Stained Glass
.In 1861, Holiday accepted the job of stained glass window designer for Powell's Glass Works
James Powell and Sons
The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers...
- after Burne-Jones had left to work for Morris & Co.
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
During his time there he fulfilled over 300 commissions, mostly for customers in the USA. He left in 1891 to set up his own glass works in Hampstead, producing stained glass, mosaics, enamels and sacerdotal objects.
Holiday's stained glass work can be found all over Britain but some of his best is at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
(the Isambard Kingdom Brunel memorial window, 1868), St. Luke’s church in Kentish Town
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
and St. Mary Magdalene in Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
(1869).
Other work and personal life
Holiday also did some sculpture, in 1861 producing a piece called "Sleep" which attracted favourable critical interest.Holiday worked for architect William Burges
William Burges (architect)
William Burges was an English architect and designer. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England...
for a period, including providing wall and ceiling paintings for Worcester College, Oxford (1863–64) and furniture paintings - including "Sleeping beauty" for the headboard in the bedroom of Burges's home "Tower House" itself.
In October 1864, Holiday married Catherine Raven and they moved to Bayswater
Bayswater
Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the west . It is a built-up district located 3 miles west-north-west of Charing Cross, bordering the north of Hyde Park over Kensington Gardens and having a population density of...
, London. His wife was a talented embroiderer who worked for Morris & Co.
Morris & Co.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. and its successor Morris & Co. were furnishings and decorative arts manufacturers and retailers founded by the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris...
They had one daughter, Winifred.
In 1867, Holiday visited Italy for the first time and was inspired by the originality of the Renaissance artists he saw on display there. In 1871 he went to Ceylon as part of the " Eclipse Expedition". His astronomical drawings were subsequently published in the national press and attracted great interest.
On his return to England in 1872, he commissioned architect Basil Champneys to design a new family home in Branch Hill, Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, which was named "Oak Tree House" - in 1888, William Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
himself was a visitor.
In January 1874, Holiday was commissioned by Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
to illustrate The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark is usually thought of as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old...
. He remained friends with the author throughout his life.
In 1907, Holiday went to Egypt, painting a series of watercolours and illustrations on ancient Egyptian themes. These were exhibited at "Walker's Gallery", London, in March 1908. In 1907-08, he commissioned the building of a holiday home, "Betty Fold" in his favourite part of the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
.
Holiday had been a socialist throughout his life and, together with his wife Kate and daughter Winifred, supported the Suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
movement. The family were close acquaintances of Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...
and her daughter, and had organised local suffragette meetings in the Lake District.
Holiday died on 15 April 1927, two years after his wife, Kate. His nephew, Gilbert Holiday (1879–1937), son of Sir Frederick Holiday, was also an artist of note.
External links
- Übersetzung de
- Holiday online (ArtCyclopedia)
- Paintings by Holiday (Art renewal Center museum)
- The stained glass of Henry Holiday (University of St. Andrews)
- A gallery of a few of Holiday's stained glass works
- Holiday's Stained Glass Windows in Cumbria
- Paintings featuring children ("Children in art history")
- Study of a draped classical figure (Christie's)