Charles Holmes

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Sir Charles John Holmes , KCVO (born November 11, 1868 in Preston , Lancashire , † December 7, 1936 in London ) was an English art historian , museum director and artist .

Youth and early professional years

Son of Rev Charles Rivington Holmes, nephew of Sir Richard Rivington Holmes, librarian at the Royal Library of Windsor Castle . Educated at St. Edmund's School, Canterbury , from 1883 at Eton College . From 1887 Holmes studied on a scholarship at Brasenose College , Oxford . From 1889 he worked in various London publishing houses , first with his cousin Francis Rivington, then with Ballantyne Press, and finally with John Cumming Nimmo. 1896-1903 he was the manager of Vale Press for Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon . In addition, Holmes wrote an art column with Roger Fry in the magazine Athenaeum . In 1903 he married his cousin, the musician Florence Rivington.

academic career

Holmes was from 1904 to 1910 Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University and 1904-09, at times together with Robert Dell, editor of the 1903 founded Burlington Magazine . In 1909 he was appointed director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, where he built a collection of photographic portraits . In 1916 he resigned to become director of the National Gallery in London until 1928 . It was here that he made a contribution to making the collection accessible to a lay public ; he also had a number of inventory catalogs drawn up.

As an artist

Bridge near Gargrave , watercolor by Sir Charles Holmes, 1934

Holmes was an autodidact as a painter and draftsman . Based on the detailed study of the techniques of the old masters , he developed a highly individual style, based on European and East Asian art (he dealt with the art of Hiroshige and Hokusai at an early stage ). He later came under the influence of Ricketts and learned to etch from William Strang .

Holmes was best known for landscapes and preferred to paint barren mountain scenes such as Red Ruin, Lucerne (1907; London, Tate Britain ). He often found his motifs in northern England . His style remained relatively constant, a simplified, realistic style of painting in which he often emphasized a geometrical pattern that he contrasted with a more naturalistic treatment of the sky. Holmes was also one of the few artists who devoted himself to depicting industrially dominated landscapes. He painted a series of views of the industrial area around Blackburn and Preston for Samlesbury Hall ( exhibited at Colnaghi's , London, in 1928 ).

From 1900 he exhibited regularly with the New English Art Club , of which he became a member in 1904 or 1905; In 1924 he was also Associate (extraordinary member ), 1929 and 1935 Member Vice President of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolors . Between 1912 and 1930 he also exhibited six times at the Venice Biennale . The Fine Art Society held a memorial exhibition in London in 1937.

Honors

In 1921 Holmes received the accolade , in 1928 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order . He also received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds and in 1931 became an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.

Fonts (selection)

  • Hokusai , 1899
  • Constable and His Influence on Landscape Painting , 1902
  • Notes on the Science of Picture-Making , 1909
  • Notes on the Post-Impressionist Painters, Grafton Galleries, 1910-11 , 1910
  • Notes on the Art of Rembrandt , 1911
  • Leonardo da Vinci , 1919
  • with CH Collins Baker : The Making of the National Gallery, 1824-1924. An historical sketch , 1924
  • A Grammar of the Arts , 1931
  • Self and Partners (Mostly Self) , 1936 ( autobiography )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Holmes, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holmes, Charles John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English art historian, museum director and artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Preston , Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1936
Place of death London