Collection Online

Browse by artist name

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
The daughter of the house

The daughter of the house
 1879

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
46.5 × 60.3 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: Frank.Holl (ank.Holl underlined)/79
Accession Number
1070-3
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1920
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

Holl entered London’s Royal Academy School at the age of sixteen and won its gold medal for historical painting two years later. He devoted his artistic career to the documentation of working-class life in Victorian England, and to portraiture. In 1867 Holl married Anna Laura Davidson, a watercolour artist. The daughter of the house is a portrait of one of the couple’s four daughters, shown in bed recovering from a serious illness. This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879, where it received critical praise. The Magazine of Art noted, for example: ‘The execution is strikingly free, strong and workmanlike.’

Subjects (general)
Daily Life Human Figures Portraits
Subjects (specific)
bed coverings daughters girls illness parrot reading (activity) recovery (health-related concept) repose (activity)
Provenance
Exhibited Royal Academy, London, 1879, no. 950; with Arthur Tooth & Sons (dealer), London, 1879; exhibited Winter Exhibition, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Fine Art Galleries, Haymarket, 1879, no. 51; collection of Henry Lovatt (1831–1913), Wolverhampton, by 1881; included in the Henry Lovatt sale, Christie’s, London, 21 May 1881, no. 89; from where purchased by Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 1881; collection of William Yeats Baker (1836–1916), Streatham, London, until 1916; included in the W. Y. Baker sale, Christie’s, London, 9 November 1916, no. 105; from where purchased by A. Pickering & Son (dealer), London; with Pickering & Son, until 1920; by which sold, Christie’s, London, 26 March 1920, no. 152; from where purchased, on the advice of Frank Rinder, for the Felton Bequest, 1920.

Royal Academy, London, 1879, no. 950; Winter Exhibition, Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 1879, no 51; Exhibition of Oil Paintings by British & European Artists, Centre for Adult Education, Melbourne, 1954, no 13; The First Fifty Years: 19th Century British Art from the Gallery Archives, Melbourne, 1992; Hidden Treasures, David Jones’ Art Gallery, Sydney, 1992.


Frame

Essentially classical revival in style, a number of frames with this form and detail appear in the collection.
In Melbourne a variant of this frame became associated with the painter Charles Rolando. Made by John Thallon the frame became known as a ‘Rolando’.

Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Date
c.1879
Materials

timber, composition, gold leaf

Frame Condition

good original condition

Dimensions
81 x 96 x 10 cm