The following description has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon

Note 1) The following biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:

“Born near Cadiz, Ohio, William Henry Holmes was a survey-field artist, who earned a reputation as a skilled panoramic landscape painter of the Grand Canyon. He also did delicate watercolors in traditional style, and was a writer, archaeologist, teacher and illustrator. He lived in Washington DC, Chicago and Royal Oak, Michigan.

Holmes was educated in the public schools of Georgetown, Ohio, and was a teacher until 1872. He then moved to Washington D.C. where he studied art with Theodore Kaufmann, and did sketching of specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. He also studied in Germany at the Munich Art Academy.

In 1872, succeeding Thomas Moran, he became field artist for the United States Geological Survey, called the Hayden Expedition, of what became Yellowstone Park. The leader was Ferdinand Hayden, and from him, Holmes learned about much about geology. Holmes was with Hayden in 1874 on a Colorado survey, and in 1875, led the survey party in Arizona and New Mexico. By 1876, he was a full-fledged geologist.

In 1879, he went to Europe, and the next year he accompanied Clarence Dutton on a Grand Canyon geological exploration, doing “double page” panoramas, nine of them, that led viewers breathlessly to the Canyon edge. It was said that these views were the highest point ever reached in topographical illustration.

In 1884 to 1886, he did a study of Pueblo Indians in Mexico, and from that time, held positions as Head Curator of Chicago's Field Museum and Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1902 to 1920, when he became director of the National Collection of Fine Arts. From 1898-1906 he taught geology at the University of Chicago.”

Memberships included the Washington Watercolor Club [of which he was President from 1914-1930, (when he was succeeded as President by August Herman Olson Rolle, who was elected to such position from 1931-1937)]; Washington Landscape Club, Washington Society of Fine Art, Society of Washington Artists, and the Cosmos Club. [Among his exhibition venues were the foregoing organizations and] the Corcoran Gallery from 1919 to 1926, with the first one being a solo exhibition; National Academy of Design; Art Institute of Chicago; Boston Art Club; and the Brooklyn Art Association.”

Among the museums that hold works by Holmes are the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas and the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Washington, D.C., which holds a significant collection of watercolors by Holmes.

Note 2) The above Holmes biographical materials do not reflect the fact that Holmes was a highly educated and true Renaissance man and one of the most influential scholars, museum officials and artists in Washington, D.C. in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The changes in Holmes painting styles, in all of which he excelled primarily in watercolor and rarely and occasionally, oil painting, originated with his Thomas Moran-like realistic watercolors and oils of the Far West, which carried over to this auction watercolor; his more somber, Barbizon-like and Dutch influenced style of the 1880's-1890's, culminating with his adoption of a more Impressionistic style c. 1900, which he still used, in many instances a lot of relatively undiluted greens, not made pastel, by the addition of white or other light paint. In Mr. Fastov's estimation, Holmes was the most adaptable, flexible, interesting, and best overall artist in Washington, D.C. during his lifetime. Most of Holmes watercolors sold at auction are landscapes, mostly small, which bring, per Askart.com and Artprice.com prices, on average, from the hundreds to up to approximately $2,000, with a handful exceeding $2,000, reaching up to $3,100 and one which brought $4,250, with the significant exception of a Thomas Moran-like “Mount of the Holy Cross,” which brought $22,705. His few watercolors of women bring much higher prices than the average Holmes landscape. See below for “Girl Sitting on a Hillside,” which brought $7,212 and “ Playing on the Hillside,” which brought $7,475.

Bear in mind that Holmes much preferred medium, watercolor, was his best medium. As Holmes was President of the Washington Watercolor Club from 1914-1930 and was the first Director of the U.S. National Collection of Fine Arts (“NCFA”), commencing in 1920, when he died in 1933, it is not surprising that a huge collection of his watercolors went to the NCFA and remain today under the custody of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, which succeeded the NCFA. A small portion of these watercolors are on exhibition at the Smithsonian museum, and most of them are superior to that which has appeared at auction. The watercolor that is being offered at this auction is on a par with these watercolors, given its fine watercolor technique and its delicacy and subtletly in depicting the beautiful young woman with a gentle and wistful look, which is not matched in the depictions of young women in the watercolors that brought $7,212 and $7,475, which were executed later than this auction watercolor and are smaller. The foregoing considerations and observations and the following Holmes watercolor auction records, warrant a conclusion that the above presale estimate of $7,000-$15,000 is reasonable and justifiable, as this watercolor is a study of a beautiful young woman, beautifully framed, which is one of Holmes most valuable watercolor subjects (see below), and every auction sales record of a watercolor set forth below, indicates that the watercolor is smaller than this Holmes watercolor (21 ½ in. x 16 in.) being offered at this auction:

Title/Subject: Mount of the Holy Cross Signed. Watercolor and gouache on paper. 18.25 in. x 11.25 in. sold for $22,705 on 05/17/2011 at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, TX

Title/Subject: Harbor View Through Wisteria Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 15.20 in. x 20.30 in. sold for $2,032 on 05/26/2004 3

[No phographic image available] Title/Subject: Country Landscape Signed. Watercolor on paper. 15 in. x 19 ½ sold for $3,100 on 4/13/2000 at Wolf’s Auction Gallery, Cleveland, OH

Title/Subject: Summertime, Near Chevy Chase [MD] Signed with initials. Watercolor on paper. 10.20 in. x 15 in. sold for $3,680 on 05/23/1995 at Christie’s, NY

[No photographic image available]Title/Subject: Golden Rocks at Avalon-Santa Catalina Island, Cal., 1899 Signed. Watercolor on paper. 9 in. x 13 ½ in. sold for $3,000 on 9/17/1994 at Bakker Boccelli Fine Art, Cambridge MA

Title/Subject: Pasturelands, 1919 Signed. Gouache on paper. 15 in. x 20.20 in. sold for $4,830 on 11/30/1994 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: Playing on the Hillside Mixed media on board. 10.20 in. x 15.10 in. sold for $7,475 on 05/26/1993 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: Girl Sitting on a Hillside Signed with initials Watercolor on paper. 15.10 in. x 21.60 in. sold for $7,712 on 12/04/1992 at Christie’s, NY