Frederick Hollyer (17 June 1838 – 21 November 1933) was an English photographer and engraver known for his photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings, particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and for portraits of literary and artistic figures of late Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

London.''Concise Grove Dictionary of Art'', "Frederick Hollyer"Obituaries of Fredrick Hollyer, at Luminous-LintWildman, ''Edward Burne-Jones'', p. 197-198

Family

Hollyer was the youngest son of Samuel Hollyer (1797–1883), a line engraver, fine art publisher, collector of

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

s, and Deputy Sealer at the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equ ...

until 1853, when the post was abolished.Biography of Frederick Hollyer at Luminous-Lint His brothers Christopher Charles Hollyer (1836–1874), and Samuel Hollyer Jr. (1826–1919) also worked as engravers.Notes on engraving of the Hollyer Brothers, National Portrait Gallery Frederick Hollyer's first published works were

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...

engravings of two paintings by

Edwin Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

published by J. McQueen in 1869.

Photographic career

Hollyer became interested in photography about 1860. He made

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and

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...

prints, but his preferred medium was the ''platinotype'' or

platinum print Platinum prints, also called ''platinotypes'', are photographic prints made by a monochrome printing process involving platinum. Platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are unobtainable in silver ...

process, admired for its permanence and great tonal range. Under the patronage of

Frederic Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

, Hollyer began to photograph paintings and drawings in the 1870s. Artists whose work he published include

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...

Simeon Solomon Simeon Solomon (9 October 1840 – 14 August 1905) was a British painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelites who was noted for his depictions of Jewish life and same-sex desire. His career was cut short as a result of public scandal following hi ...

, and

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

. Of his work with the Pre-Raphaelites, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' noted that Hollyer Burne-Jones Study for Masque of Cupid

Hollyer's photographs of drawings were particularly successful; printed on high-quality paper, they were often mistaken for originals. One of the most popular was a study of three heads by Burne-Jones for ''The Masque of Cupid''. Hollyer also took studio portraits and specialised in interior and exterior photos of houses.Parry, ''William Morris'', p. 30 For 30 years, he reserved Mondays for portrait photography in his Pembroke Square studio. His sitters included the artists

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

, G. F. Watts, and Burne-Jones; the writers John Ruskin,

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George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

; and the actresses

Mrs Patrick Campbell Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell or Mrs Pat, was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Barrie. She also toured th ...

and

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...

. Hollyer eschewed the formal poses of most studio portraiture of his day; in an 1899 interview in ''The Photogram'' he said Hollyer did much to establish photography as a fine art. His work was widely acclaimed in his own day; in 1897, a critic in '' The Studio'' lamented: Hollyer joined the Royal Photographic Society 1865 and became a Fellow in 1895, but was also involved in

The Linked Ring The Linked Ring (also known as "The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring") was a British photographic society created to propose and defend that photography was just as much an art as it was a science, motivated to propelling photography further into t ...

, a society formed in to support

pictorialism Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

in opposition to the Photographic Society.Notes on Frederick Hollyer, National Portrait Gallery He was a member of the Solar Club and became one of the Founder Members of the Professional Photographers' Association in 1901.Harker, ''The Linked Ring'', p. 153-54

Later life

Frederick Hollyer married Mary Anne Armstrong (1838–1913). Their eldest son Frederick Thomas Hollyer (1870–1952) worked with his father and took over the studio when the elder Hollyer retired in 1913. Frederick Hollyer died 21 November 1933 at his eldest son's home in

Blewbury Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs section of the North Wessex Downs about south of Didcot, south of Oxford and west of London. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it t ...

(then part of Berkshire), aged 95. Today, Hollyer is remembered chiefly for his photographs of Burne-Jones, William Morris, and their circle.

Gallery

Image:Frederick Hollyer Morris and Burne-Jones Families 1874.jpg, Burne-Jones and Morris families, 1874 Image:Frederick Hollyer portrait of Georgiana Burne-Jones c1882.jpg, Georgiana Burne-Jones, c. 1882 Image:Frederick Hollyer Nichols Mackail Beeching.jpg, Bowyer Nichols,

J. W. Mackail John William Mackail (26 August 1859 – 13 December 1945) was a Scottish academic of Oxford University and reformer of the British education system. He is most often remembered as a scholar of Virgil and as the official biographer of the so ...

, and

H. C. Beeching Henry Charles Beeching (15 May 1859 – 25 February 1919) was a British clergyman, author and poet, who was Dean of Norwich from 1911 to 1919. Biography Beeching was born on 15 May 1859 in Sussex, the son of J. P. G. Beeching of Bexhill. He was ...

, c. 1882 Image:Frederick Hollyer Garden Studio at the Grange 1887.jpg, Burne-Jones's studio, 1887 Image:William Morris age 53.jpg, William Morris, c. 1887 Image:Edward Burne-Jones Photogravure Hollyer.jpg, Photogravure of portrait of Burne-Jones by his son Philip Image:Frederick Hollyer John Ruskin 1894.jpg, John Ruskin, 1894

Notes

References

* *
Biography of Frederick Hollyer
at Luminous-Lint. Accessed 2008-09-01. * * * Harker, Margaret: ''The Linked Ring, The Secession Movement in Photography in Britain, 1892–1910'', London, Heinmann, 1979 * Lochnan, Katharine A., Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, editors, ''The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by Wiliam Morris and his Circle in Canadian Collections'', Key Porter Books, 1993, * Parry, Linda, ed., ''William Morris'', Abrams, 1996, * Roberts, Helene E.: ''Art History Through the Camera's Lens'', Routledge, 1995, (excerpt at ) * Wildman, Stephen: ''Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998,

External links

Frederick Hollyer Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Works by Frederick Hollyer in Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's collection
The Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
Pictures by Frederick Hollyer at the National Portrait Gallery

Pictures by Frederick Hollyer at the Hollyer Family site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollyer, Frederick 1838 births 1933 deaths British portrait photographers 19th-century English photographers People from Pentonville Photographers from London