Ellen Sarah Gibbs as a little girl
Oil Painting
1863 (painted)
1863 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Frank Holl or Francis Montague Holl (1845-1888) was the eldest child of the well-known engraver Francis Holl (1815-1884). He entered the Royal Academy schools aged fifteen and in 1863 won a gold medal for the religious painting Abraham about to Sacrifice Isaac. He had a reputation for painting scenes depicting impending tragedy or death and often chose his subjects from observation of modern English life. He was a successful portraitist, painting many notable figures of his day, but very rarely painted women. This particular portrait is of Ellen Sarah Gibbs, later Mrs Edgar Holl.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Ellen Sarah Gibbs as a little girl (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on millboard |
| Brief description | Oil painting on millboard, depicting a 'Portrait of Ellen Sarah Gibbs as a Little Girl', by Frank Holl. Great Britain, 1863. |
| Physical description | Three-quarter view portrait of a young girl with long blonde hair seated in a chair. The girl holds an ?apple in her right hand and looks toward the left edge of the canvas. On the back is an over-lifesize study (in grey and brown) of a hand with bent fingers. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Frank Holl 1863 (signed lower right) |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Mrs C. M. Baker through The Art Fund |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Mrs C. M. Baker through the National Art Collections Fund Historical significance: Frank Holl (1845-1888) was born in London, the son of the engraver Francis Holl. He was accepted at the Royal Academy Schools at the age of 15, and in 1863 he won a gold medal for a religious painting. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1864 until his death. Holl specialised in a melancholy, even morbid strain of genre painting, and in the 1870s won popular success with paintings on the themes of social problems, illness and mortality. In the late 1870s Holl became a successful and prolific portrait painter. This early exercise in the genre is a portrait of the artist's future sister-in-law. It was given to the V&A in 1958 by Mrs C.M. Baker through the Art Fund, along with Holl's painting of his younger brother when a small boy (P.1-1958). Also included in the gift was an oil sketch of the head of a Welsh fishergirl (P.3-1958). The small boy and girl are portraits of Mrs Baker's parents as children. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Frank Holl or Francis Montague Holl (1845-1888) was the eldest child of the well-known engraver Francis Holl (1815-1884). He entered the Royal Academy schools aged fifteen and in 1863 won a gold medal for the religious painting Abraham about to Sacrifice Isaac. He had a reputation for painting scenes depicting impending tragedy or death and often chose his subjects from observation of modern English life. He was a successful portraitist, painting many notable figures of his day, but very rarely painted women. This particular portrait is of Ellen Sarah Gibbs, later Mrs Edgar Holl. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | P.2-1958 |
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| Record created | May 18, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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