Theodor von Holst
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Theodor Von Holst was born 3rd September 1810. His Livonian/ Russian parents Matthias and Katharina had settled in London in 1807 after emigrating from Riga, fleeing the troubles the Napoleonic war had created. His family was very musical; his father taught and composed, and Theodor's great-nephew was Gustav Holst, the famous composer of such works as The Planets. In 1820 the Holst family met Henry Fuseli, the Keeper and Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, and four years later Theodor became his student. From the moment he was enrolled, Holst adopted the same bold and remarkable style for which his master was famous. Despite his death only a year after Holst’s tuition had begun, Fuseli’s artistic influence over his pupil was so strong that it stayed with him throughout the whole of his short life. Their styles were so similar in fact, that for over a hundred years after his death, many of Holst’s pieces were falsely credited to Fuseli. |
Holst and the Grotesque
Holst was highly influential to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They recognised in his work a fine draughtsmanship, and identified with his sense of colour his unconventional inventiveness and his connection with Medievalism. Like Holst, they also based many of their pictures on medieval and literary themes. There were aspects of his work however that the Brotherhood could not identify with. The Pre-Raphaelite movement is a blend of romantic idealism, scientific rationalism and morality. This mixture of elements was typical to the contemporary artistic tastes of Victorian England. Holst however did not capitulate to satisfy the popular demand for such a sentimental genre. Instead he often chose grotesque, daemonic subjects from literary sources, or sometimes combined completely different sources. This inventive, if not erratic, approach resulted in many successful works. The diverse, and at times random, seeming elements combine to produce an unresolved tension that is shocking, and either captures the attention or revolts the onlooker. This is what makes Holst a truly grotesque artist. The fusion of different realms, and the lack of proportion and organization causes a monstrous quality. This is evident in Holst’s Decapitated Nude Man Holds his Head Up and Terrifies Two Cats.
Holst and Grotesque literature.
Holst depicted scenes from some of the most bizarre and fantastic works of literature to be written in the Romantic period. He was not, however, merely an illustrator. His sense of ‘brooding romanticism’ evident in his art is partly due to his admiration and inspiration from extraordinary tales or Märchen from such romantically grotesque German authors as E.T.A Hoffman. A section of Hoffman’s famous story Der Sandmann appears to coincide with the extent to which Holst was involved in his work:
| ....Hast du, Geneigtester! wohl jemals etwas erlebt, das deine Brust, Sinn und Gedanken ganz und gar erfüllte, alles andere daraus verdrängend? … Dein Blick war so seltsam als wolle er Gestalten, keinem andern Auge sichtbar Da frugen dich die Freunde: »Wie ist Ihnen, Verehrter? - Was haben Sie, Teurer?«. Und nun wolltest du das innere Gebilde mit allen glühenden Farben und Schatten und Lichtern aussprechen und mühtest dich ab, Worte zu finden, um nur anzufangen. Hattest du aber, wie ein kecker Maler, erst mit einigen verwegenen Strichen, den Umriß deines innern Bildes hingeworfen, so trugst du mit leichter Mühe immer glühender und glühender die Farben auf und das lebendige Gewühl mannigfacher Gestalten riß die Freunde fort und sie sahen, wie du, sich selbst mitten im Bilde, das aus deinem Gemüt hervorgegangen! .... |
The above excerpt describes an experience in which a figure can find himself completely immersed in a scene dreamt up by someone else. To find oneself in a situation alien to you, particularly when being transformed from a normal world as we know it to a fantastic Romantic or literary world is a very grotesque notion. Holst demonstrates this characteristic in many of his works. We need only to compare his self-portrait with some of his illustrations of literary scenes to see that he often depicted himself as the main subject. An example of this is clearly evident in A Dream after Reading Goethe’s ‘Walpurgisnacht.
This
piece is only one of many of Holst's depictions of Faust scenes.
Jean
Paul Richter is quoted as having said, ‘the French have the Land, the
English the Sea and
Holst and Faust
Goethe’s play tells the tale of Dr Faust, a learned man honoured by his students and townspeople, who is frustrated with his life, as his studies seem to do nothing but convince him of man’s futility. Mephistopheles, knowing Faust's dissatisfaction, makes a bet with the Lord that he, the Devil, can win Faust's soul. Mephistopheles proposes that he will enable Faust to experience all pleasures the world has to offer, providing that, if Faust should wish to hold any passing moment for further enjoyment, he would die and become the Devil's own. Faust readily agrees the contract; his life’s work has been a search for all knowledge, therefore he believes that when he is truly satisfied, there would be no need to go on living.
Faust, which itself can be said to be fairly grotesque in its nature, was undoubtedly Holst’s most influential and favourite literary source. He decided to create a set of illustrations to Goethe’s Faust, but was rivalled by the French artist Delacroix who also began to embark on the same task almost simultaneously, despite Delacroix claiming to be ‘uninterested’ in Goethe’s play. Delacroix was indisputably the older and more celebrated artist of the two, and the appearance of an epic series of illustrations on the same subject as Holst’s own most probably overwhelmed the younger English artist, as he failed to complete his series of illustrations. Since Faust was his favourite literary subject, it is not all too surprising that he conceded to the masterly Delacroix illustrations, so as not to be upstaged. The only illustrations completed were Faust in his Study, Mephistopheles and the Student in Faust’s study, Faust and Margaret , The Witches departing for the Hartz Mountains , and Walpurgisnacht.
Despite the release of Delacroix’s Faust illustrations, Holst did not abandon his subject completely. Faust continued to be the subject of several of his drawings and paintings, including 'Faust and Gretchen in Two Burlesque Scenes'. The ‘burlesque’ style itself is related to the grotesque through its comical and playful nature. The grotesque can be seen as a sub–form of the comic, classed broadly with the burlesque and vulgarly funny. These burlesque scenes differ completely from Delacroix’s gloomy depictions of the scenes, which exhibit all of his tendencies towards the macabre and the daemonic. Holst’s burlesque scenes and picturesque romantic illustrations, as seen in the unfinished Faust and Gretchen in the Garden and Faust and Gretchen are dissimilar in that they are light in their mood and display at times his eccentric sense of humour. This is, in my opinion, because the play can be considered grotesque enough in its own right, without its illustrations also having to depict and point out the daemonic in it. One element of the grotesque is the idea that life can seem completely normal one moment and be completely abnormal the next. If the play is set and illustrated in a fantasy-world, with no pretensions to a connection with reality, then the situation is not grotesque. This is because within a closed fantasy-world, anything is possible. It is the conscious confusion between fantasy and reality that is disorienting and even frightening, but also potentially comic, and through the depiction of many scenes involving the daemonic as ‘normal’, I believe Holst adds more of a whole round grotesque effect to Faust.
Frankenstein
Goethe’s Faust was not his only source of literary inspiration, and not the only literary work he illustrated. Holst’s illustrations for Mary Shelley’s late gothic novel Frankenstein were the first to be published. Frankenstein and His Monster and Frankenstein departs from Elizabeth. The two illustrations then appeared in the 1831 edition of the novel, in which Mary Shelley was first identified as the author.
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