Artist and stained glass designer. Henry George Alexander Holiday entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of 15 and was soon drawn to the ideas, and the artists, of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He was influenced by his friend Edward Burne-Jones and shared the socialism of William Morris. His work in stained glass is closely associated with James Powell & Sons, designing windows for the firm from late 1862 until 1890. He also designed windows that were made by Lavers and Barraud and Heaton, Butler and Bayne in the 1860s. Holiday's influence on the work of Powell's had a long-lasting effect on their production through the work of his pupils and assistants into the 1920s.
Despite the success of his work with Powell's, he became intensely critical of the studio system endemic at most stained glass firms, and ended his association with Powell's to establish his own workshop in 1890. From about 1900 he even made his own glass at the workshop. His later work was made at Lowndes & Drury's Glass House in Fulham, and his last windows were executed by E. Liddall Armitage.
Henry Holiday also worked as a painter, illustrator and sculptor, and his broad range of interests led to involvement in the campaign for Irish Home Rule, women's suffrage and dress reform.
