Identity:

George Augustus Holmes was a genre painter. He was the brother of the landscape, marine and portrait painter Edward Holmes.

Life:

Holmes exhibited at the Royal Academy, Grosvenor Gallery, Fine Art Society, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Cambrian Academy, Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery and Paris Salon from 1852 to 1911. He joined the membership of the Society of British Artists in 1863, exhibiting 110 works with them.

In 1884 Holmes was included in a list by JW that may have been a guest list for a private view of 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884. At this date he was living at 62 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea (#08682). In 1885 Holmes, along with JW, promised to donate one of his pictures to the Society of British Artists which was holding a ballot to raise funds. The first fifty subscribers of £5.5 were to receive an etching by JW (#09363).

Bromley was a council member of the Society of British Artists in 1887 when JW was President and when it gained its Royal Charter. He exhibited at the RBA in the winter of 1886-87 and was a non-exhibiting member in the winter of 1887-88. In August 1887 he wrote to JW: 'As an old member let me thank you for the energy and perseverance shown by you in the interests of the Society and that notwithstanding its present financial condition I have the strongest hopes of a brilliant future' (#02161). However, in 1888 Holmes was among those who called for JW's resignation (#05321).

Bibliography:

Who Was Who: A Companion to Who's Who, vol. 1, 1897/1915, London, 1920-21; Wood, Christopher, Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Woodbridge, 1971; Johnson, J., and A. Gruetzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980.