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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
Dante meets Beatrice at Ponte Santa Trinita
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 academy (where a fellow student was Frederick Walker) and in 1855, at the tender age of 15, was admitted to the Royal Academy. Through his friendship with Albert Moore and Simeon Solomon he was introduced to the artists Rosetti, Burne Jones and William Morris 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. 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 Rheingold. 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". * "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, 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 - after Burne-Jones had left to work for Morris & Co. 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 (the Isambard Kingdom Brunel memorial window, 1868), St. Luke’s church in Kentish Town and St. Mary Magdalene in Paddington (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 for a period, including providing wall and ceiling paintings for Worcester College, Oxford (1863–64)[3] and furniture paintings - including "Sleeping beauty" for the headboard in the bedroom of Burges's home "Tower House" itself.[4] In October 1864, Holiday married Catherine Raven and they moved to Bayswater, London. His wife was a talented embroiderer who worked for Morris & Co. They had one daughter, Winifred.[5] In 1867, Holiday visited Italy for the first time and was inspired by the originality of the Renaissance artists he saw on display there.[6] 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, which was named "Oak Tree House" - in 1888, William Gladstone himself was a visitor. In January 1874, Holiday was commissioned by Lewis Carroll to illustrate The Hunting of the Snark. He remained friends with the author throughout his life.[5] 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.[7] In 1907-08, he commissioned the building of a holiday home, "Betty Fold" in his favourite part of the Lake District. Holiday had been a socialist throughout his life and, together with his wife Kate and daughter Winifred, supported the Suffragette movement. The family were close acquaintances of Emmeline Pankhurst 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.[8]
1. ^ *Henry Holiday: An artist's album (Courtauld institute).
* Holiday, Henry. Stained glass as an art (1896). Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/ ", Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ==--==--==
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