Patience

Born in Birmingham in 1834, William Holyoake was a genre and historical painter. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists where he exhibited fifty-three paintings, becoming Vice President in 1887, during which time James Abbott McNeill Whistler was elected President of the Society. Holyoake also exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy and the British Institution and was twice the Curator of one of the Academy Schools. The artist was a very active exhibitor between 1858 and 1885, showing at the Royal Academy, British Institution, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and Royal Society of British Artists in London, as well as at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. G. Reynolds likened the females in his In the Front Row of the Opera to Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'stunners'. (G. Reynolds, The Victorian Scene, 1953.)