Frank Holl

Who was Frank Holl?

Frank Holl RA, English painter and royal portraitist, and was educated chiefly at University College School.

He was born Francis Montague Holl in London to family of noted engravers, being the son of Francis Holl ARA, as well as a nephew of William Holl the Younger and a grandson of William Holl the Elder, whose profession he originally intended to follow. Entering the Royal Academy schools as a probationer in painting in 1860, he rapidly progressed, winning silver and gold medals, and making his debut as an exhibitor in 1864 with A Portrait, and Turned out of Church, a subject picture. A Fern Gatherer; The Ordeal; Convalescent, and Faces in the Fire, succeeded. Holl gained the travelling studentship in 1868; the successful work was characteristic of the young painter's mood, being The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.

In 1869 he was recruited as an artist by the engraver and social reformer William Luson Thomas, to work on Thomas's newly founded newspaper, The Graphic.