The Artists

Denes de Holesch

1910-1983

Biographical Outline

1910 Denes Dezo George de Holesch was born on 9 February, 1910 at Banska-Bystrica, Northern Hungary. He was the third child and youngest son of Hugo de Holesch, an architect and Margit, nee Wagner. Many generations of the de Holesch family had worked as professional architects.

1913 From an early age he showed a keen interest in painting, music, and horses.

1928 He received a formal education, concentrating on the study of art, and in 1928 won a scholarship to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest.

1933 After completing his degree he travelled to the Orient, and produced works in Korea, Manchuria and North China. He remained in China for the next three years, visiting Soochow, Hangchow, Peiping and Shanghai. Here he produced portraits in oils, and lithographs of the Chinese, as well as landscape works in oils,depicting the local countryside, and canal, street and city scenes. His exposure to the arts of the Chinese, with their simplicity of line, greatly influenced his later works.

Denes de Holesch
Painting Chinese Monk

1935 He held a large exhibition of the works he produced in China at the Foreign Y.M.C.A., 150 Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai. View an article from 'Shanghai' Friday November 22, 1935.

Denes de Holesch
Chinese Monk 1935
oil on canvas 63 x 56cm
signed and dated lower right
'Shanghai' Holesch 1935

1936 In June, he exhibited his works at the Peiping Institute of Fine Arts, Nan Ho Yen, Peiping, and left China soon after, travelling through Hong Kong to Japan, where he briefly stayed, before moving to the Philippines. He at first lived in the mountainous northwestern Luzon area with a tribe of Igorot headhunters, then moved to Manila where he painted landscapes depicting the local natives and the beautiful tropical flowers. In July, he held an exhibition of his works in Room 122 of the Manila Hotel, and in August, painted the portrait of President, Manuel L. Quezon. In December, he opened a studio at 1125-E Dakota, Manila.
View an article from the 'Manila Bulletin' Saturday December 26, 1936.

Denes de Holesch
1936 on the Great Wall of China

1937 He left the Philippines and travelled to Java and then on to Bali. Here he continued to paint the natives at work and at play and the natives helped him to construct a studio from the local timbers.

Denes de Holesch painting the wife
of King Billee in the Northern Territory 1938

1938 He was invited by Mr Hugh Stuart, General Manager of the Sydney Morning Herald, to join the Australian Government backed Northern Australian Expedition as the official artist. He arrived in Australia, and set off on the three-month expedition from Government House, Darwin on 21 September. The expedition is described by the expedition's naturalist, Charles Barrett, in his monograph, Koonwarra. He met King Billie and other aborigines and produced a number of landscape works depicting the aborigines of Northern Australia in their natural environment, as well as a number of portraits. View and article in The Northern Standard Friday September 23 1938.

Denes de Holesch
Female Aboriginal With Pipe 1938
oil on canvas 28 x 23cm
signed lower right

1939 Returning from the expedition, an exhibition was held in Sydney of the artworks and photographs produced during the expedition. He established a studio in a boat shed on Lavender Bay, near Sydney and remained there for close to five years. During this time he received many commissions for portraits.

1940 In March, an exhibition of his works was held at the Macquarie Galleries in Bligh Street, Sydney. View articles from 'The Sun' Monday February 26 1940 and 'The Sydney Morning Herald' Wednesday March 20 1940 about this exhibition. View an article about the Denes de Holesch expedition to the Northern Territory The Sunday Sun and Guardian March 17 1940.

His work, Soochow Creek was used as the colour illustration facing the title page in Art in Australia. Third Series, Number 79, May 1940.

Left: Denes de Holesch
Soochow Creek China c.1935
oil on canvas 52 x 41cm
signed lower right

1944 On 23 March, he married the Melbourne concert pianist, Joyce Greer in Sydney, and in September they travelled to Coochin-Coochin in Queensland, where several landscape works of the surrounding countryside were produced. On their return they moved to Lilydale, Victoria where their daughter, Laura was born on 20 December.

Denes de Holesch and Joyce Greer at
their wedding 23 March 1944

1945 In March, an exhibition of his works was held at Georges Gallery in Collins Street, Melbourne. In October, the couple left Australia for New York. At this point of his career his interest turned to the painting of horses. Exhibitions were held at Gallery Wildenstein, Herve, and F.A.R.

1946 He moved to Montreal, Canada and continued with his portraiture and horse paintings that were exhibited at the National Gallery of Montreal. He also produced a number of still life works of flowers. His son, Hugo was born on 12 June.

1947 Early in the year he moved to Boston and continued painting portraits and horses. In June, he painted the portrait of Harvard Law School Dean, Erwin N. Griswold, and in October his works were exhibited at Margaret Brown's Galerie Intime, Newbury Street, Boston. His works were also exhibited in Ehrmann's and Vose Galleries. Late in the year he moved to San Francisco.

1948 He produced a clay sculpture head of Egon Petri, one of a number of clay sculptures that he produced. He also produced a number of wood carvings. His paintings were chosen for inclusion in a Group Exhibition in the National Gallery of San Francisco, and in the important and prestigious 'Renoir to Picasso' Exhibition held at Maxwell's Galleries, 372 Sutter Street, San Francisco.

Clay sculpture head of Joyce Greer

1949 He left San Francisco for a short stay in New York.

1950 He travelled to England, and lived in St. John's Wood.

1951 He painted the portrait of Neville Cardus in London, before returning to New York to complete a number of portrait commissions. He was accepted as a member of Portraits Inc., New York.

Denes de Holesch
Portrait of Neville Cardus
London 1951

1952 On 28 August, he took out a United States of America Certificate of Naturalization. The certificate gave his address at this time as 253 East 62nd Street, New York City, N.Y. and his personal description as of fair complexion, with blue eyes and brown hair and height six feet one inches. Late in the year, he travelled back to England, and lived in Buckinghamshire.

1953 His works were included in a Group Impressionists Exhibition held at the Ohana Gallery, London.

Denes de Holesch
Piccadilly Circus London

1954 He travelled to New York, where he was commissioned to paint Herbert Gasser, Nobel Prize Winner in Biochemistry.

1955 He returned to England, and then travelled to Paris to exhibit works in the Galerie Marcel Lenoir.

1956 He again returned to New York to work on portrait commissions and for exhibitions of his works, mainly of horses. These exhibitions were held in New York, Boston, San Francisco and late in the year at the Galleries of Frank J. Oehlschlaeger at 107 East Oak Street, Chicago. During this year, visits with his family to Ringling Circus and to a rodeo in Tucson, Arizona must have impressed him greatly, for images of these events soon appeared on his canvases. His work was greatly admired by Hollywood film- stars, such as Ann Rutherford and Burt Lancaster, and David Niven purchased one of the horse paintings to give as his wedding present to Grace Kelly on her marriage to Sovereign Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Denes de Holesch
New York (Central Park) 1957
oil on canvas 61 x 76.5cm
signed and dated lower middle
Holesch - NY: 1957

1957 An exhibition of his works was held at the Veerhoff Gallery, Washington, DC.

1958 He returned to England to live in Markham Square, Chelsea. He continued with his paintings of horses, mainly oils on canvas, although he occasionally painted on pressed board panels and also on vinyl. Prints of three of his artworks, 'Courtship', 'Chargers' and 'Rehearsal' were made by Triton Press, New York.

Denes de Holesch
Courtship c. 1958
oil on canvas 91.5 x 76cm
signed lower left

1959 The prints of 'Courtship' and 'Chargers' were advertised in 'Everywoman's Family Circle'. It has been estimated that close to a million copies of his prints were sold over the next ten years, with 'Courtship' being advertised by Stern's Book Department on 5th Avenue, New York along with prints by Picasso, Degas, Goya, Modigliani, Renoir and Van Gogh. View the page from 'Everywoman's Family Circle'.

1960 He moved to Antibes, on the French Riviera in the South-East of France. An exhibition of his works was held in the Galerie des Etats-Unis, Cannes and his works were now permanently exhibited at Galerie Madsen, Rue St. Honore, Paris and Galerie Davis, Place Vendome, Paris.

1961 Known to Picasso, he was invited to attend a special bull-fight held in the South of France, which was organized for Pablo Picasso's 80th birthday. Scenes of bull-fights were later to appear in a number of his canvases.

1963 He moved to Belgravia, London and soon after moved to New York for portrait commissions. He then travelled to Mexico City, where his works were exhibited at the Galerie Arte de Coleccionistas. Late in the year he returned to England, and then moved once again, this time to Vienna.

1964 He moved from Vienna to Wurttemberg, close to the Black Forest in South-West Germany. He remained there for three years although there were regular trips to Paris, Madrid and Lisbon.

1967 From Wurttemberg, he moved to an old stone farmhouse in the village of Voulangis, situated some forty kilometres outside of Paris. During this time the art journal 'Apollo' carried an article outlining the strengths of his work. Also at this time, the Medici Society in London produced postcards and large prints of his work "White Horses'.

Denes de Holesch
"Rue de Madeleine" (Montmartre Paris c.1969)
oil on canvas 35.5 x 45.5cm
signed lower left

1973 On one short trip he travelled to Beverly Hills, California, where his works were exhibited by the Art Collectors Gallery in a major one-man exhibition, sponsored by the Mexican Government, and held at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Also, during this year his daughter, Laura married playwright, Christopher Hampton.

1974 He painted the portrait of 'Octavio', the favourite Arab horse of Delia, Princess Zu Oettingen of Wallerstein. Her husband, the Prince was the President of the Baden-Baden Jockey Club.

Denes de Holesch
Octavio 1974

1975 He moved from Voulangis to Castelfontana in the Dorf Tirol overlooking Merano, Italy. He remained there for close to a year and exhibited his works in a group exhibition in Merano in which works by Dali and Annigoni were also displayed. He also exhibited works in Viterbo, Italy and in the Tabula Gallery in Tubingen.

1976 His works were chosen for a group exhibition held in the Museo de los Castillos, Manzanaves el Real, Madrid, Spain.

1978 He travelled to Ottawa, Canada where he stayed for three to four months, painting portraits on commission.

1979 He returned to the old farmhouse at Voulangis for a few months and then travelled to Westmount, Montreal, where he lived for just over a year. During this time he painted the portrait of Pope John Paul II.

Denes de Holesch
Portrait of Pope John Paul 11

1981 He moved from Westmount to Oxford, England where he resided for a few months before moving to Stoneythorpe Hall in Warwickshire.

1983 At the beginning of the year he travelled to Paris and visited many of the art dealers who had handled the selling of his works for many years. One in particular was Robert Philippe in Montmartre who had sold many of his paintings depicting bull-fights to buyers from Madrid and Tokyo. After a short stay in Paris he travelled to Hungary and only four weeks after his arrival, he died of cancer on 11 May.

1985 A number of his works were selected for a group exhibition in Cascais, Lisbon, and in June an exhibition of his Portuguese bull-fight works was held at the 'Pro Contra Piano Club' in Bonn, Germany.

1989 A retrospective exhibition of his works was held in the ANZ Pavilion, The Theatres, Victorian Art Centre on Sunday 3 December.

2000 Twenty of his works are exhibited at Szantodpuszta, Hungary, between 5 May and 11 October.

Left: Arthur Streeton - Above Us The Great Grave Sky, 1890
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.