Against the odds - Jennifer Holloway

Edgar Holloway, the Doncaster-born son of a miner-turned-print-seller, was recognized as an infant prodigy and given his first exhibition in London in 1931, aged 17. He was an acclaimed portraitist of, among others, T S Eliot, Stephen Spender, Herbert Read, and was noted for his series of etched self-portraits and lively watercolor landscapes.He renounced fine art under the influence of Eric Gill, whose favorite model he married. They raised their family at Ditchling in Sussex, where he joined the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, working as a commercial artist. Returning to fine art in the 1970s, he carried out portrait and landscape commissions in the USA. He presided over the last years of the Guild. His style developed in the 1980s, and, after his second marriage, national touring exhibitions of his work brought renewed recognition.