Born in Staffordshire, England, Holland came from a family who worked at a pottery works. Taught first by his mother, who was a porcelain painter, Holland became a flower painter for the Davenport Works. He moved to London at the age of 20 and gradually turned to landscape painting, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. He traveled abroad extensively and later specialized in Continental views, especially Venice. He was elected to the Royal Watercolor Society in 1857. Today, Holland’s work is represented in many of the world’s great collections of British art, and he is listed in numerous reference works on British and 19th-century art. The present mixed-media drawings are from a sketching tour in the autumn of 1866. As Huon Mallalieu has written: “Amongst the most attractive of his works are the sketches which were never meant for general circulation…their freedom and verve are extremely appealing.” His work is represented in a number of public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. Literature Mallalieu, Huon. The Dictionary of British Watercolor Painters to 1920. Wilcox, Scott. British Watercolors: Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art. Etc.