FREDERICK HOLLYER (BRITISH 1837-1933) AFTER HARRY BATES (BRITISH 1850-1899)

FREDERICK HOLLYER (BRITISH 1837-1933) AFTER HARRY BATES (BRITISH 1850-1899)
The Story of Psyche, triptych
signed Harry Bates (lower right)
photogravure
40.5 x 78, 40.5 x 28 cm

Frederick Hollyer worked as an engraver, but soon moved to photography and became a member of the Photographic Society of London in 1865. He specialized in photographing art, to name a few, he reproduced paintings by Leighton, Watts, Edward Burne-Jones (1833 – 98) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 82), as well as the Holbein drawings at Windsor Castle.
He also produced a photogravure of Harry Bates's silvered bronze bas-reliefs triptych of The Story of Psyche, the photographic reproduction was shown at the 39th annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society. In a review of the event, the photographer Alfred Horsley Hinton describes this artwork as " a finer or more complete idea of relief has probably never been produced than the reproduction of Harry Bates' 'Story of Psyche,' which is shown by F. Hollyer. The relief of the original clay modelling is so perfectly given that it seems difficult to see why, from an aesthetic point of view, such productions should not be largely used for high-class decoration ..." (The Photograph, November 1894, p. 270).