20 Works, July 4th. is Francis Montague Holl's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #181

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Far away thoughts

Oil on canvas

16 x 22in (40.6 x 55.8cm)

Private collection

Francis Montague Holl RA (London 4 July 1845 – 31 July 1888 London) was an English painter and royal portraitist

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Frank Holl

Oil on canvas, 1863

21 5/8 in. x 16 7/8 in. (550 mm x 430 mm)

National Portrait Gallery, London

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

ANOTHER GLASS, SIR?

Watercolour

30cm x 25cm (11.75in x 9.75in)

Private collection

Holl was born in London to family of noted engravers, being the son of Francis Holl ARA, as well as a nephew of William Holl the Younger and a grandson of William Holl the Elder, whose profession he originally intended to follow. He was educated mainly at University College School. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer in painting in 1860, he rapidly progressed, winning silver and gold medals, and making his debut as an exhibitor in 1864 with A Portrait (See above), and Turned out of Church, a subject picture. A Fern Gatherer (1865); The Ordeal (1866); Convalescent (the somewhat grim pathos of which attracted much attention), and Faces in the Fire (1867), succeeded. Holl gained the travelling studentship in 1868; the successful work was characteristic of the young painter's mood, being The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away (See below).

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith, c. 1870

Oil on canvas

39¼ x 56¼ in. (99.6 x 143 cm.)

Private collection

Holl's title is taken from the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 15, verse 17 and is one of his early works. His exhibit at the Royal Academy of the following year, No Tidings from the Sea (See below), was bought by Queen Victoria, and the previous year he had been awarded the Travelling Prize for his first success The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away (See below).

Along with artists such as Luke Fildes and Hubert von Herkomer, Holl presented to the public unequivocal scenes of the suffering of the urban and rural underclass. Hanging alongside the more sentimental offerings of the Victorian school, they had the power to shock, and the public lionized them for it. As the critic Harry Quilter wrote: 'These were genuine, and in one sense almost great pictures: they struck a note in modern art which may possibly rise to be the dominant one. The traditions of the schools are dying away; the costume art is dying fast, and it is pictures like these which devote unsparing power to the facts of everyday life that are hastening the change'. More on this painting

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Faces in the Fire, c. 1867

Oil on canvas

46.5 x 67.5 cm (height x width)

University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

A Fisherman's Home, c. 1881

Oil on canvas

H 101.6 x W 128.3 cm

Walker Art Gallery

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Children of the sea

Oil on Canvas

76.5 x 56 cm. (30.1 x 22 in.)

Private collection

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Peeling Potatoes, c.1870

Oil on canvas

H 34 x W 24 cm

William Morris Gallery

In 1869 he was recruited as an artist by the wood-engraver and social reformer William Luson Thomas, to work on Thomas's newly founded newspaper, The Graphic. In 1886, he produced a portrait of Millais as his diploma work, but his health rapidly declined and he died at Hampstead, north London, on 31 July 1888. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery. There is also a memorial to Holl at St Paul's Cathedral

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

The Lord Gave and the Lord Taketh Away, Blessed Be the Name of the Lord, c. 1868

Oil on canvas

H 91 x W 124 cm

Guildhall Art Gallery

The owner of one painting – of a family in mourning black gathered around a table, which was so admired in 1868 that the 24-year-old artist was awarded a scholarship to Italy for it – refused to give it up even when Queen Victoria wanted to buy it from him. The queen then gave Holl a commission, and he produced an equally lugubrious painting for her (See below), No Tidings, of a cowering family gathered in a cottage interior, waiting for what is clearly going to be dire news. Visitors to the exhibition can judge which patron got the better bargain, as the two paintings are brought together for the first time. More on this painting

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

No Tidings from the Sea, c. 1870

Oil on canvas

71.4 x 91.4 cm 

The Royal Collection Trust 

The painting depicts the interior of a fisherman's cottage early in the morning. A young woman, her hat flung back over her shoulders, has apparently returned home with no news from the sea, suggesting her husband has died while out fishing. The artist's daughter explained that the family had spent a holiday in June 1870 at Cullercoats on the Northumbrian coast. There her father had learnt much about the life of the fishing community and the dangers it held. He had visited their cottages, studying and 'sketching incessantly'. There had been one particularly harrowing moment when the body of a young fisherman had been carried back into his cottage.

Queen Victoria had seen and admired another painting by Holl in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1869 (See above). The Queen commissioned the artist to paint a picture for her, giving him free choice over the subject. More on this painting

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

I am the Resurrection and the Life, c. 1872

Oil on canvas

Height: 116.8 cm (45.9 in); Width: 162.6 cm (64 in)

Leeds Art Gallery

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Her First Born, Horsham Churchyard (Funeral of the First Born), c. 1876

Oil on canvas

H 109.2 x W 155.6 cm

Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection

The weeping mother is supported by her husband while her younger sisters carry the baby’s white coffin. Despite the tragic subject, the colour and tonal harmonies are very pleasing.

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Her First Born, Horsham churchyard (Funeral of the First Born)', a study, c. 1874

Watercolour

22 x 33cm (8 11/16 x 13in).

The Maas Gallery

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Study, Leaving England

Oil on canvas

73cm x 90cm

Private collection

The Third Class Waiting Room' Soldier and his sweetheart waiting for his train, a widow and elderly gentleman beside them, young soldiers in the doorway,

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Gone, c.1877

Oil on canvas

Courtesy of the Geffrye Museum, London

Women at Euston station grieve for a father and son newly departed for Liverpool en route to a new life in America

Overwork undermined Holl's health, but his reputation was assured by the studentship picture. In 1870 he painted Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love is, than a Stalled Ox and Hatred therewith; No Tidings from the Sea, a scene in a fisherman's cottage, in 1871—a story told with breath-catching pathos and power; I am the Resurrection and the Life (1872) (See above); Leaving Home (1873), Deserted (1874) (See below), both of which had great success; Her First-born, girls carrying a baby to the grave (1876) (See above); and Going Home (1877) (See below). Van Gogh admired Holl's works and wrote enthusiastically to his brother Theo about them.

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Going Home, c. 1877

Oil on canvas

H 101 x W 140 cm

The Royal Hospital Chelsea

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Deserted – A Foundling, c. 1874

Oil on canvas

H 53.6 x W 74.5 cm

The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate

The artist was walking around the east London docks one day when he came across a similar scene and used it as inspiration for this picture. Holl first turned the story of the abandoned baby into a drawing, published as an engraving in The Graphic magazine in 1873. He heightened the emotion of the original scene by adding the figure of the distraught mother on the right.  Holl later turned the drawing into a full-scale painting, for which this is the oil sketch. More on this painting

In 1877 he painted the two pictures Hush and Hushed. Newgate, Committed for Trial (See below), first attested the breaking down of the painter's health in 1878. In this year he was elected A.R.A., and exhibited The Gifts of the Fairies, The Daughter of the House, Absconded, and a portrait of Samuel Cousins the mezzotint engraver.

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Newgate: Committed for Trial, c. 1878

Oil on canvas

H 152.3 x W 210.7 cm

Royal Holloway, University of London

What we see before us is what Holl described as a “cage”   It was where prisoners on trial were allowed, at certain times, to see visitors and talk to them through a double row of bars.  The space in between the two sets of bars was patrolled by a warden.    Holl later commented that he became very emotional when he saw the desperation of the prisoners and their visitors as they awaited the results of their trials.  In an attempt to better capture the emotion of imprisonment, Holl painted this picture whilst inside the Newgate Prison. In the painting today we see Holl’s depiction of two women and their children visiting their husbands who had been incarcerated.   Look at the face of the prisoner on the left.  It is a look of wide-eyed innocence but as we catch sight of his wife that stands before him we note how she seems wearied by her husband’s protestations of his innocence.  Could it be that she has heard it all before?  Almost hidden by this female visitor we can just make out a second prisoner.  He is in a much more animated and distressed state and seems to be pleading to his wife who is seated clutching her baby to her chest.  Is it a plea for forgiveness and understanding or is it a plea of innocence?  Whatever it is, the young woman seems unmoved and somewhat resigned by what she hears. More on this painting

Holl was overwhelmed with commissions, which he would not decline. The consequences of this strain upon a constitution which was never strong were more or less, though unequally, manifest in Ordered to the Front, a soldier's departure (1880) (See below); Home Again, its sequel, in 1881 (after which he was made Royal Academician). Gosse’s detection of melancholy in Home again! draws attention to the lack of true celebration in Holl’s painting. The 72nd Seaforth Highlanders participated in four major campaigns during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Thousands of British soldiers were either killed in combat or died from disease between 1878 and 1881 when British forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan. 

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Ordered to the Front, c. 1880

Oil on canvas

H 75 x W 64 cm

The New Art Gallery Walsall

Francis Montague (Frank) Holl (British, 1845–1888)

Home again! 1881

Oil on canvas

128.1 × 102.6 cm

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Home again!, 1881, was commissioned by the builder and art collector Sir Thomas Lucas as a companion work to Frank Holl’s Ordered to the front, 1880 (reduced copy in the New Art Gallery Wallsall, Staffordshire, as original is missing) (See above), which Lucas had acquired soon after it was painted. Ordered to the front is a classically gloomy Holl painting, showing a group of Highland soldiers taking sad leave of their wives and families at a railway station. Originally titled ‘Summoned for active service’, Ordered to the front was first created by Holl as an illustration for the Graphic in January 1879. In that wood engraving, a newspaper poster on a wall with the text, ‘Daily Telegraph / The Afghan War’, enabled these soldiers to be identified as the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders setting out to participate in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, a military conflict between the United Kingdom and the Emirate of Afghanistan between 1878 and 1880. More on this painting

Holl's major portraits include likenesses of Lord Roberts, painted for Queen Victoria (1882); the Prince of Wales (1882–83); Lord Dufferin, the Duke of Cleveland (1885); Lord Overstone, John Bright, Mr Gladstone, Joseph Chamberlain, John Tenniel, Earl Spencer, Viscount Cranbrook, and a score of others. More on Francis Montague Holl

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