Theodor von Holst. Theodor Richard Edward von Holst was a nineteenth-century British literary painter.
Von Holst was born in London, the fourth of the five children of Matthias and Katharina von Holst. Von Holst's drawing talents were noticed by the artist Henry Fuseli and Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Lawrence even bought drawings from the ten-year-old Von Holst. Fuseli trained the young man in early years, after which he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.
According to Max Browne's biographical article in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Von Holst's early instruction by Fuseli exerted such a powerful influence on his artistic development that some of his work is almost indistinguishable from that of his master. Like Fuseli, Von Holst painted mostly famous literary subjects of European culture, but not current trends.
He drew from the works of Virgil, Dante, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, and Victor Hugo. Von Holst was the first artist to illustrate Shelley's novel Frankenstein in 1831. However, the German Romantics, particularly the works of Goethe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, were the basis of almost half his works. Von Holst became the most prolific English illustrator of German Romance. As Browne explains, while exceptional imagination and draughtsmanship were widely praised, his choice of subjects were out of step with the age and public taste.
Von Holst was born in London, the fourth of the five children of Matthias and Katharina von Holst. Von Holst's drawing talents were noticed by the artist Henry Fuseli and Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Lawrence even bought drawings from the ten-year-old Von Holst. Fuseli trained the young man in early years, after which he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.
According to Max Browne's biographical article in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Von Holst's early instruction by Fuseli exerted such a powerful influence on his artistic development that some of his work is almost indistinguishable from that of his master. Like Fuseli, Von Holst painted mostly famous literary subjects of European culture, but not current trends.
He drew from the works of Virgil, Dante, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, and Victor Hugo. Von Holst was the first artist to illustrate Shelley's novel Frankenstein in 1831. However, the German Romantics, particularly the works of Goethe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, were the basis of almost half his works. Von Holst became the most prolific English illustrator of German Romance. As Browne explains, while exceptional imagination and draughtsmanship were widely praised, his choice of subjects were out of step with the age and public taste.
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