Holland, William Langford

Introduction:

William Holland was a profilist based in Dublin in the late 18th century. He had a relatively successful career as an artist, and painted silhouettes primarily on glass.

Holland received a professional training at the schools of the Dublin Society, winning school prizes in 1774, 1776 and 1779. By 1777 he had also exhibited crayon drawings at the Society of Arts, William Street, Dublin. Jackson states that Holland worked at 12 Suffolk Street, Dublin, as a painter of profiles on glass. An advertisement for similar work in a Dublin newspaper dating 1786 gives an address of 46 Capel Street. Surviving silhouettes by Holland do appear to date from the late 1780s or early 1790s and were probably all painted in Dublin. One trade label exists.

Holland painted on the under surface of flat glass, using what appears to be black watercolour. Most of his silhouettes are backed with silk or satin, originally white. He normally either used a bust-line finish with a double concavity, formed by a dip at the junction of the arm with the rest of the profile, or a simple convexity/concavity finish.