A charming genre painting featuring two girls feeding piglets & other farm animals by George Augustus Holmes. A girl is depicted standing by the door of a rustic barn holding a feeding bucket as a younger girl waits by her side. As she prepares to distribute the food, a drove of piglets together with a cockerel, hen and chicks rush to form a circle around them. Meanwhile, the younger girl can be seen clutching at her sister’s apron to steady herself as the animals close in. A work entitled, ‘Circle of Friends’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875, no. 454 and could well be one in the same.

George Augustus Mortimer Leigh Holmes was born in Marylebone, London on 23 April, 1828 to the miniature painter James Holmes (1777-1860) and his wife Ann. His brother Edward Henry Rickman Holmes (1825-1898) was a landscape and portrait painter. Little is known about his early education, but judging from the quality of both his work and that of his brother, they most likely received tuition from their father who taught art for a time.

He worked mainly in oil and specialised in painting genre scenes often featuring children and animals. He exhibited the Royal Academy from 1852-1909 and at the major London galleries including the British Institution, Grosvenor Gallery, Fine Art Society and Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He became a member of the Society of British Artists in 1863 where he exhibited 110 works. He also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Cambrian Academy, Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and at the Manchester City Art Gallery. From 1906 to 1911 he exhibited at the Paris Salon.

He spent most of his adult life living in Chelsea. From the early 1860’s he lived at 2 Prospect Place, Cheyne Walk but by 1870 had moved to 62 Cheyne Walk, a fashionably artistic area of London where his brother Edward also lived with him. James Whistler was one of his neighbours and was also a colleague at the Society of British Artists.

He died in Chelsea on 30 March 1911. A photograph of him is in the National Portrait Gallery. Examples of his work can be found at the Victoria Gallery, Liverpool.

© Benton Fine Art