F. Holland Day: Difference between revisions

F. Holland Day
F. Holland Day
	Photograph of Day by Gertrude Käsebier, c. 1898
Born	Fred Holland Day; July 23, 1864; Boston, Massachusetts, US
Died	November 12, 1933 (aged 69); Norwood, Massachusetts, US
Occupation(s)	Photographer, publisher

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Fred Holland Day (July 23, 1864 – November 23, 1933)^[1] was an American photographer and publisher. He was prominent in literary and photography circles in the late nineteenth century and was a leading Pictorialist.^[1]^[2] He was an early and vocal advocate for accepting photography as a fine art.^[2]

Life

Fred Holland Day was the son of a wealthy Boston merchant, and was a man of independent means for all his life. He was a descendant of Ralph Day of Dedham.^[3]

Day's life and works were controversial because he took an unconventional approach to religious subjects and often photographed male nudes.^[4] His emphasis on the classical ideal sometimes bordered on homoeroticism.^[1] According to Pam Roberts, "Day never married and his sexual orientation, whilst it is widely assumed that he was homosexual, because of his interests, his photographic subject matter, his general flamboyant demeanor, was, like much else about him, a very private matter."^[5]

Day spent much time among poor immigrant children in Boston, tutoring them in reading and mentoring them. One in particular, the 13-year-old Lebanese immigrant Kahlil Gibran, went on to fame as the author of The Prophet.^[1]

Day co-founded and self-financed the publishing firm of Copeland and Day, which from 1893 through 1899 published about a hundred titles.^[1] The firm was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and William Morris's Kelmscott Press.^[1] The firm was the American publisher of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley; The Yellow Book, a periodical also illustrated by Beardsley; and The Black Riders and Other Lines by Stephen Crane.

He is known to have traveled. Beaumont Newhall states that he visited Algiers, possibly as a result of reading Wilde and Gide. There is a photographic Portrait of F. Holland Day in Arab Costume, 1901 by Frederick H. Evans.

Day was a friend of Louise Imogen Guiney and Ralph Adams Cram, and a member of social clubs, such as the Visionists, formed around shared interests in arts and literature. He was a major patron of Aubrey Beardsley.

He was also a lifelong bibliophile and collector. Most notable among his collections was his world-class collection on the poet John Keats.

Work

At the turn of the century, his influence and reputation as a photographer rivaled that of Alfred Stieglitz, who later eclipsed him. The high point of Day's photographic career was probably his organization of an exhibition of photographs at the Royal Photographic Society in 1900. New School of American Photography presented 375 photographs by 42 photographers, 103 of them by Day, and evoked both high praise and vitriolic scorn from critics. The populist Photographic News saw it as the result "of a diseased imagination, of which much has been fostered by the ravings of a few lunatics ... unacademic ... and eccentric".

Day belonged to the pictorialist movement which regarded photography as a fine art and which often included symbolist imagery. The Photo-Secessionists invited him to join, but he declined the offer. As was common at the time, his photographs allude to classical antiquity in manner, composition and often in theme. From 1896 through 1898 Day experimented with Christian themes, using himself as a model for Jesus. Neighbors in Norwood, Massachusetts, assisted him in an outdoor photographic re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus. This culminated in his series of self-photographs, The Seven Last Words, depicting the seven last words of Christ.

He often made only a single print from a negative. He used only the platinum process, being unsatisfied with any other, and lost interest in photography when platinum became unobtainable following the Russian Revolution.

Legacy

Day became all but forgotten for a number of reasons. He was eclipsed by his rival, Stieglitz. The pictorial and symbolist photographic style went out of fashion in the face of the radical shift towards early modernism in the art world. Two thousand of his prints and negatives were lost in a 1904 fire. The few hundred that survived were sent to the Royal Photographic Society in the 1930s.

Since the 1990s, Day's works have been included in major exhibitions by museum curators, notably in the solo Day retrospective at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2000-2001 and similar shows at the Royal Photographic Society in England and the Fuller Craft Museum. Art historians are once again taking an interest in Day, and there are now significant academic texts on Day's homoerotic portraiture, and its similarities to the work of Walter Pater and Thomas Eakins.

Day's house at 93 Day Street in Norwood, Massachusetts, is now the F. Holland Day House & Norwood History Museum. It also serves as the headquarters of the Norwood Historical Society.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Roberts, Pam (2008). "Fred Holland Day". In Hannavy, John (ed.). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. New York: Routledge.
^ ^a ^b "Making a Presence: F. Holland Day in Artistic Photography". Addison Gallery of American Art. 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
^ Fanning, Patricia J. (2008). Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-1-55849-668-2. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
^ "F. Holland Day". The J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
^ Roberts, Pam; Becker, Edwin (2001). Fred Holland Day. Waanders Publishers.
^ F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal: James Crump, F. Holland Day: 9780944092330: Amazon.com: Books

External links

[Hannavy-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Roberts, Pam (2008). "Fred Holland Day". In Hannavy, John (ed.). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. New York: Routledge.

[Addison-2] "Making a Presence: F. Holland Day in Artistic Photography". Addison Gallery of American Art. 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2021.

[Fanning2008-3] Fanning, Patricia J. (2008). Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-1-55849-668-2. Retrieved December 23, 2019.

[4] "F. Holland Day". The J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved March 12, 2021.

[5] Roberts, Pam; Becker, Edwin (2001). Fred Holland Day. Waanders Publishers.

[6] F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal: James Crump, F. Holland Day: 9780944092330: Amazon.com: Books

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+{{Short description|American photographer and publisher (1864–1933)}}
-[[Image:Day, Fred Holland (1864-1933) - Youth sitting on a stone (Nicola Giancola), 1907.jpg|thumb|200px|''Youth Sitting on a Stone,'' by F. Holland Day (1907)]]
+{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
-[[Image:Day, Fred Holland (1864-1933) - Edward Carpenter.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Edward Carpenter, early gay rights activist, by F. Holland Day]]
+{{Infobox person
+|image=-F. Holland Day- MET DP264342.jpg
+|caption=Photograph of Day by [[Gertrude Käsebier]], {{circa}} 1898
+|birth_name=Fred Holland Day
+|birth_place=[[Boston]], Massachusetts, US
+|birth_date=July 23, 1864
+|death_date={{death date and age|1933|11|12|1864|07|23|mf=y}}
+|death_place=[[Norwood, Massachusetts|Norwood]], Massachusetts, US
+|occupation=Photographer, publisher
+}}
+[[File:Fred Holland Day 1911.jpg|thumb|Fred Holland Day, 1911.<br>Part of the [[Louise Imogen Guiney]] collection]]
+[[Image:Day, Fred Holland (1864-1933) - Youth sitting on a stone (Nicola Giancola), 1907.jpg|thumb|''Youth Sitting on a Stone,'' by F. Holland Day (1907)]]
+[[Image:Day, Fred Holland (1864–1933) - Edward Carpenter.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Edward Carpenter]], the early gay rights activist, by F. Holland Day]]
+'''Fred Holland Day''' (July 23, 1864 – November 23, 1933)<ref name=Hannavy>{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Pam|editor-last=Hannavy|editor-first1=John|title=Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography|chapter=Fred Holland Day|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=2008}}</ref> was an American photographer and publisher. He was prominent in literary and photography circles in the late nineteenth century and was a leading [[Pictorialism|Pictorialist]].<ref name=Hannavy/><ref name=Addison>{{cite web|title=Making a Presence: F. Holland Day in Artistic Photography|website=Addison Gallery of American Art|url=https://addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/FHollandDay/Pages/default.aspx|date=2012|accessdate=March 12, 2021}}</ref> He was an early and vocal advocate for accepting photography as a fine art.<ref name=Addison/>
-'''Fred Holland Day''' (Boston [[July 8]], [[1864]] - [[November 12]], [[1933]]) was a noted photographer and publisher. He was the first in the U.S.A. to advocate that photography should be considered a fine art.
-==Biography==
+==Life==
+Fred Holland Day was the son of a wealthy [[Boston]] merchant, and was a man of independent means for all his life. He was a descendant of [[Ralph Day (Dedham)|Ralph Day]] of Dedham.<ref name="Fanning2008">{{cite book|last=Fanning|first=Patricia J.|title=Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qzwk97nobl8C&pg=PA7|accessdate=December 23, 2019|year=2008|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-668-2|pages=6–7}}</ref>
+Day's life and works were controversial because he took an unconventional approach to religious subjects and often photographed male nudes.<ref>{{cite web|title=F. Holland Day|website=The J. Paul Getty Museum|url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1768/fred-holland-day-american-1864-1933/|accessdate=March 12, 2021}}</ref> His emphasis on the [[Classicism|classical ideal]] sometimes bordered on [[homoeroticism]].<ref name=Hannavy/> According to Pam Roberts, "Day never married and his sexual orientation, whilst it is widely assumed that he was homosexual, because of his interests, his photographic subject matter, his general flamboyant demeanor, was, like much else about him, a very private matter."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roberts|first1=Pam|last2=Becker|first2=Edwin|title=Fred Holland Day|publisher=Waanders Publishers|date=2001}}</ref>
-===Life===
+Day spent much time among poor immigrant children in Boston, tutoring them in reading and mentoring them. One in particular, the 13-year-old Lebanese immigrant [[Kahlil Gibran]], went on to fame as the author of ''[[The Prophet (book)|The Prophet]]''.<ref name=Hannavy/>
-Day was the son of a Bostonian merchant, and was a man of independent means for all his life.  He first trained as a painter.
+Day co-founded and self-financed the publishing firm of Copeland and Day, which from 1893 through 1899 published about a hundred titles.<ref name=Hannavy/> The firm was influenced by the [[Arts and Crafts movement]] and [[William Morris]]'s [[Kelmscott Press]].<ref name=Hannavy/> The firm was the American publisher of [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[Salomé (play)|Salomé]]'', illustrated by [[Aubrey Beardsley]]; ''[[The Yellow Book]]'', a periodical also illustrated by Beardsley; and ''[[The Black Riders and Other Lines]]'' by [[Stephen Crane]].
-Day's life and works had long been controversial, since his photographic subjects were often nude male youths. [[Pam Roberts]], in ''F. Holland Day'' (Waanders Pub, 2001; catalog of a Day exhibition at the [[Van Gogh Museum]]) writes: "Day never married and his sexual orientation, whilst it is widely assumed that he was homosexual, because of his interests, his photographic subject matter, his general flamboyant demeanor, was, like much else about him, a very private matter."
+He is known to have traveled. [[Beaumont Newhall]] states that he visited [[Algiers]], possibly as a result of reading Wilde and Gide. There is a photographic ''Portrait of F. Holland Day in Arab Costume, 1901'' by [[Frederick H. Evans]].
-Day spent much time among poor immigrant children in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], tutoring them in reading and mentoring them. One in particular, the 13-year-old Lebanese immigrant [[Kahlil Gibran]], went on to fame as the author of ''[[The Prophet (book)|The Prophet]]''.
+Day was a friend of [[Louise Imogen Guiney]] and [[Ralph Adams Cram]], and a member of social clubs, such as the [[Visionists]], formed around shared interests in arts and literature. He was a major patron of [[Aubrey Beardsley]].
-Day co-founded and self-financed the publishing firm of Copeland and Day, which from 1893 through 1899 published about a hundred titles. The firm was influenced by the [[Arts and Crafts movement]] and [[William Morris]]'s [[Kelmscott Press]]. The firm was the American publisher of [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[Salomé (play)|Salomé]]'', illustrated by [[Aubrey Beardsley]]; [[The Yellow Book]], also illustrated by Beardsley; and [[The Black Rider and Other Lines]] by [[Stephen Crane]].
+He was also a lifelong bibliophile and collector. Most notable among his collections was his world-class collection on the poet [[John Keats]].
-He is known to have travelled.  Beaumont Newhall states that he visited [[Algiers]], possibly as a result of reading Wilde and Gide.  There is a photo "Portrait of F. Holland Day in Arab Costume, с. 1900" by [[Alvin Langdon Coburn]].
+==Work==
-He was a friend of [[Louise Imogen Guiney]] and [[Ralph Adams Cram]].  He was a major patron of [[Aubrey Beardsley]].
+At the turn of the century, his influence and reputation as a photographer rivaled that of [[Alfred Stieglitz]], who later eclipsed him. The high point of Day's photographic career was probably his organization of an exhibition of photographs at the [[Royal Photographic Society]] in 1900. ''New School of American Photography'' presented 375 photographs by 42 photographers, 103 of them by Day, and evoked both high praise and vitriolic scorn from critics.  The populist ''Photographic News'' saw it as the result "of a diseased imagination, of which much has been fostered by the ravings of a few lunatics ... unacademic ... and eccentric".
+[[Image:Day, Fred Holland (1864-1933) - Seven last words of Christ (detail) - Selfportrait.jpg|thumb|200px|''The Seven Last Words,'' by F. Holland Day]]
-===Work===
+Day belonged to the [[pictorialism|pictorialist]] movement which regarded photography as a fine art and which often included [[Symbolism (movement)|symbolist]] imagery. The [[Photo-Secession]]ists invited him to join, but he declined the offer. As was common at the time, his photographs allude to [[classical antiquity]] in manner, composition and often in theme. From 1896 through 1898 Day experimented with Christian themes, using himself as a model for Jesus. Neighbors in [[Norwood, Massachusetts]], assisted him in an outdoor photographic re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus. This culminated in his series of self-photographs, ''The Seven Last Words,'' depicting the seven last words of Christ.
-At the turn of the century, his influence and reputation as a photographer rivalled that of [[Alfred Stieglitz]], who later eclipsed him. The high point of Day's photographic career was probably his organization of an exhibition of photographs at the [[Royal Photographic Society]] in 1900. ''New School of American Photography'' presented 375 photographs by 42 photographers, 103 of them by Day, and evoked both high praise and vitriolic scorn from critics.  The popularist "Photographic News" saw it as the result... "of a diseased imagination, of which much has been fostered by the ravings of a few lunatics... unacademic ...and eccentric".
-Day belonged to the [[pictorialism|pictorialist]] movement which regarded photography as a fine art and which often included [[symbolist]] imagery. The [[Photo-Secessionists]] invited him to join, but he declined the offer. As was common at the time, his photographs allude to [[classical antiquity]] in manner, composition and often in theme.  From 1896 through 1898 Day experimented with Christian themes, using himself as a model for Jesus. Neighbors in [[Norwood, Massachusetts]] assisted him in an outdoor photographic [[staged photography]] re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus. This culminated in his series of self-photographs, ''The Seven Words,'' depicting the seven last words of Christ.
 He often made only a single print from a negative. He used only the [[platinum print|platinum process]], being unsatisfied with any other, and lost interest in photography when platinum became unobtainable following the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]].
-===Legacy===
+==Legacy==
+Day became all but forgotten for a number of reasons. He was eclipsed by his rival, Stieglitz. The pictorial and symbolist photographic style went out of fashion in the face of the radical shift towards early [[modernism]] in the art world. Two thousand of his prints and negatives were lost in a 1904 fire. The few hundred that survived were sent to the Royal Photographic Society in the 1930s.
+Since the 1990s, Day's works have been included in major exhibitions by museum curators, notably in the solo Day retrospective at the [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]] in 2000-2001 and similar shows at the [[Royal Photographic Society]] in England and the [[Fuller Craft Museum]]. Art historians are once again taking an interest in Day, and there are now significant academic texts on Day's homoerotic portraiture, and its similarities to the work of [[Walter Pater]] and [[Thomas Eakins]].
-Day became all but forgotten for a number of reasons. He was eclipsed by his rival, Stieglitz. The pictorial and symbolist photographic style went out of fashion in the face of the radical shift towards early [[modernism]] in the art world, a style which shut out all hints of homosexuality.  Two thousand of his prints and negatives were tragically lost in a 1904 fire.  The few hundred that survived were sent to the Royal Photographic Society in the 1930s.
+Day's house at 93 Day Street in Norwood, Massachusetts, is now the [[Fred Holland Day House|F. Holland Day House]] & Norwood History Museum. It also serves as the headquarters of the Norwood Historical Society.
-Now that the attitudes toward homosexuality have changed so radically, since the 1990s Day's works have been included in major exhibitions by museum curators, notably in the solo Day retrospective at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2000/2001 and similar shows at the the Royal Photographic Society in England and the Fuller Museum of Art.  Art historians are once again taking an interest in Day, and there are now significant academic texts on Day's homoerotic portraiture, and its similarities to the work of [[Walter Pater]] and [[Thomas Eakins]].
-Day's house at 93 Day Street, Norwood, Massachusetts is now a museum (The F. Holland Day House & Norwood History Museum), and the headquarters of the Norwood Historical Society.
 ==Further reading==
 * Estelle Jussim. ''Slave to Beauty: The Eccentric Life and Controversial Career of F. Holland Day'' (1981).
+* Stephen M. Parrish. ''Currents of the Nineties in Boston and London: Fred Holland Day, Louise Imogen Guiney, and Their Circle'' (1987).
-* James Crump. ''F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal'' (1995).
+* [[James Crump]]. ''F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal''<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0944092330 F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal: James Crump, F. Holland Day: 9780944092330: Amazon.com: Books]</ref> (1995).
+* ''F. Holland Day: Selected Texts and Bibliography'' (1995).
 * Samuel Coale et al. ''New Perspectives on F. Holland Day'' (1998).
-* Patricia Fanning. ''Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day'' (2008).
+* Patricia J. Fanning. ''Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day'' (2008).
+* Trevor Fairbrother. ''Making a Presence: F.&nbsp;Holland Day in Artistic Photography'' (Andover, Mass.: Addison Gal. of Amer. Art, 2012).
 ==See also==
+* [[Fred Holland Day House]]
-* [[List of photographers known for portraying males erotically]]
-* [http://www.norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/fhd.html The F. Holland Day Historic House: About Fred Holland Day]
-* [http://www.norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/fhdread.html The F. Holland Day Historic House: Common Errors and Suggested Readings]
+==References==
-{{commonscat|Fred Holland Day}}
+{{Reflist}}
+==External links==
+{{commons category|Fred Holland Day}}
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713101552/http://www.norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/fhd.html The F. Holland Day Historic House: About Fred Holland Day]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110621035401/http://www.norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/fhdread.html The F. Holland Day Historic House: Common Errors and Suggested Readings]
+{{Authority control}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Day, F. Holland}}
 [[Category:1864 births]]
 [[Category:1933 deaths]]
-[[Category:American photographers]]
+[[Category:Photographers from Massachusetts]]
-[[Category:Gay artists]]
+[[Category:Artists from Boston]]
-[[Category:Boston cultural history]]
+[[Category:American gay artists]]
-[[Category:LGBT people from the United States]]
+[[Category:People from Norwood, Massachusetts]]
+[[Category:19th century in Boston]]
+[[Category:19th-century American photographers]]
-[[fr:Fred Holland Day]]
+[[Category:20th-century American photographers]]
-[[it:Fred Holland Day]]
+[[Category:Pictorialists]]
-[[nl:Fred Holland Day]]
+[[Category:19th-century American LGBTQ people]]
-[[pl:Fred Holland Day]]
+[[Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people]]

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