James Holmes (1777 – 24 February 1860) was a painter in oil and water colour of genre scenes and miniatures. James Holmes was at an early age apprenticed to the well-known engraver Robert Mitchell Meadows and in 1800 engraved in

stipple Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists. Art In printmaking, stipple engraving is ...

a portrait of

Rickman Rickman is both a surname and a given name. As a surname, one origin is as the English version of the German surname Ryckman. Notable people with the name include: People with the surname Rickman: *Alan Rickman (1946–2016), English film, televi ...

after Hazlitt. Holmes was also talented in music, specifically as a flute player;

Novello Novello may refer to: Places * Novello, Piedmont, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cuneo, Italy * Novello Theatre, a theatre in the City of Westminster, London, England People Given name * Clara Novello Davies (1861–1943), Welsh singer, named af ...

recommended that he pursue a career in music. He began attending the Royal Academy schools in 1796 and first exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1798. From 1798 to 1849 Holmes exhibited 21 paintings at the Royal Academy, including two miniatures (''Miss Emma E. Kendrick'' and ''Portraits of the infant children of J. Harlop, Esq.'') in 1819 and one miniature in 1848. He became a water colourist and in 1813 became a member of the

Society of Painters in Water Colours The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wat ...

, exhibiting there two of his paintings, ''Hot Porridge'' and ''The Married Man''. He continued exhibiting there until 1820. In 1822 he resigned from the Society of Painters in Water Colours, and became in 1824 a founding member of the Society of British Artists, and a frequent exhibitor, chiefly in miniatures, until 1850; he was the president of the Society in 1829. He had a successful practice as a portrait painter in miniature. Two of his miniature portraits of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

were engraved. Holmes’s portraiture of

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

lead to a personal friendship in which they played music together. Published engravings were done for some of Holmes’s paintings, including ''The Amulet'' and ''The Literary Souvenir''. He retired to Shropshire.

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery - Person - James Holmes
*

* A vignette portrait of engraved by

Thomas Woolnoth Thomas Alfred Woolnoth (1785–1857) was an English engraver. He was known for his portraits of theatre people. He also painted, and engraved works of Correggio and Van Dyck. Woolnoth was engraver to Queen Victoria. His work was also included in Ca ...

for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, James 1777 births 1860 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters Portrait miniaturists Members of the Royal Society of British Artists 19th-century English male artists