Art Appreciation No.1.

Deprived of our monthly discussions and arguments concerning paintings, and with the temporary closure of our home at the Art Gallery & Museum (The Wilson) with its access to the permanent collection of paintings, I am prompted to explore ways of continuing our explorations.  Hopefully members, and others, are able to ‘tune in’ to my (intermittent) Blog ‘Addison Art’ and so I thought I would attempt to add posts for our Cheltenham U3A Art Appreciation members (and others).                                                                                            So here goes!!                                                                                                                                            As a starter – Theodore von Holst, great-uncle of the Cheltenham composer Gustav Holst, who was born in london, the fourth of the five children of Matthias and Katharina von Holst.   Theodore’s early drawing talents were noticed by the Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, and also by Sir Thomas Lawrence, the outstanding portrait painter of his generation. Lawrence bought some of his early drawings and Fuseli tutored him until he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.                                                                                     Like Fuseli, von Holst seemed to specialise in famous European literary subjects, often of a ‘Gothic’ nature, including Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, and Mary Shelley and was the first artist to illustrate the novel ‘Frankenstein’ (in 1831) – but he was particularly fond of the German Romantics, including Goethe, E.T.A.Hoffmann, and Friedrich de la Motte Fouque. Whilst his exceptional imagination and draughtsmanship were widely praised, particularly by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites, his choice of subjects were not generally popular with an apparent fixation on the demonic, the supernatural, and the erotic.  He nevertheless was able to exhibit in the major London exhibitions and also had a following as a portrait painter.  Regarded as a Cheltenham artist, with his musical family roots in the von Holst family resident in Cheltenham, the Cheltenham Art Gallery has a number of his paintings and drawings, with several on show at the Holst Birthplace Museum.  I include here a few examples of his work :-

von Holst, Theodor Matthias; Bertalda Frightened by Apparitions; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum at Holst Birthplace Museum.

This subject is taken from a short tale ‘Undine’ (1811) by the German writer Friedrich de la Motte Fouque (1777-1843). The heroine Bertalda is tormented by a host of fantastical creatures, conjured up by the wicked supernatural creature ‘Kuhleborn’. These have been sent in an attempt to drive her away from the household of the hero, Huldbrand, and the lovely water-nymph Undine, whose evil Uncle is Kuhlebornand who is intent upon keeping the marriage between Undine and Huldbrand intact.  (Yes, I am confused as well!!)

von Holst, Theodor Matthias; The Wish; Yale Center for British Art; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum at Holst Birthplace Museum.

A work still following the mysterious or mystical theme. This painting was purchased by Lord Northwick (d1859) and hung in the extensive picture galleries of his Cheltenham property, Thirlestaine House (now Cheltenham College).

Theodore von Holst, ‘ Gustavus von Holst and His Brother, Theodor’; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum at Holst Birthplace Museum.