Sir Charles Holroyd was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

.

Early years

Charles Holroyd was born in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. He received his art education under Professor Legros

Alphonse Legros

Alphonse Legros , painter, etcher and sculptor was born in Dijon. His father was an accountant, and came from the neighbouring village of Véronnes....

 at the Slade School, University College, London, where he had a distinguished career.

After passing six months at Newlyn

Newlyn

Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

, where he painted his first picture exhibited in 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...

, Fishermen Mending a Sail (1885), he obtained a travelling scholarship and studied for two years in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, a sojourn which greatly influenced his art.

At his return, on the invitation of Legros, he became for two years assistant-master at the Slade School, and there devoted himself to painting and etching.

Career

Among his pictures may be mentioned The Death of Torrigiano (1886), The Satyr King (1889), The Supper at Emmaus, and, perhaps his best picture, Pan and Peasants (1893).

For the church of Aveley

Aveley

Aveley is a place in the Thurrock unitary authority in Essex, England and one of the traditional parishes in Thurrock. It is a suburban development located 16.3 miles east of Charing Cross in London and within the eastern bounds of the M25 motorway.-Location:Aveley is roughly bounded to the north...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, he painted a triptych

Triptych

A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...

 altar-piece, The Adoration of the Shepherds, with wings representing St Michael and St Gabriel, and designed as well the window, The Resurrection. His portraits, such as that of GF Watts, RA, in the Legros manner, show much dignity and distinction.

Holroyd made his chief reputation as an etcher of exceptional ability, combining strength with delicacy, and a profound technical knowledge of the art. Among the best known are the Monte Oliveto series, the Icarus series, the Monte Subasio

Monte Subasio

Mount Subasio is a mountain of the Apennine mountains, in the province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. On its slopes are located the ancient towns of Assisi and Spello.The mountain stands about 1290 metres above sea level....

series, and the Eve series, together with the plates, The Flight into Egypt, The Prodigal Son, A Barn on Tadworth

Tadworth

Tadworth is a large suburban village in Surrey, on the south-east slope of Epsom Downs. It forms part of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The census area Tadworth and Walton has a population of 7,016. Neighbouring settlements include Walton-on-the-Hill, Kingswood, Epsom, Burgh Heath, Banstead,...

 Common (etched in the open air), and The Storm. His etched heads of Professor Legros, Lord Courtney and Night, are admirable alike in knowledge and in likeness. His principal dry-point is The Bather.

In all his work Holroyd displays an impressive sincerity, with a fine sense of composition, and of style, allied to independent and modern feeling. He was appointed the first keeper of the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery

Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

) in 1897, and on the retirement of Sir Edward Poynter

Edward Poynter

Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter, designer, and draughtsman who served as President of the Royal Academy.-Life:...

 in 1906 he received the directorship of the National Gallery

National Gallery, London

The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...

. He was knighted

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 in 1903. His Michael Angelo Buonarotti (London, Duckworth, 1903) is a scholarly work of real value. He died on 19 November 1917.

Further reading

• Dodgson, Campbell Sir Charles Holroyd's Etchings The Print Collector’s Quarterly 1923 Oct Vol 10, No. 3, p309.
• Dodgson, Campbell Etchings of Sir Charles Holroyd (Catalogue - partial) The Print Collector’s Quarterly  1923 Oct Vol 10, No. 3, p322.
• Dodgson, Campbell Etchings of Sir Charles Holroyd (Catalogue, continued) The Print Collector’s Quarterly 1923 Dec Vol 10, No. 4, p347

External links

• listing of 287 Holroyd prints, many with images artistarchive.com