Monte Carlo and Monaco from Cap Martin
In this painting, Holst captures the unspoilt beauty of the French Riviera, as it was before hotel and casino complexes began to be built.
Holst was born in the fishing village of Borgense in Denmark. He studied at the Copenhagen Academy and then sailed to New York to travel in North America and Mexico before returning to Denmark in 1870. In 1873 he moved to Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and then to London to be at the centre of the Victorian art world. In 1896 Holst settled in Bournemouth where he lived until his death in 1934.
Holst was almost exclusively a marine painter, treating his chosen subject in such diverse locations as Denmark, Norway, England, the Côte d’Azur, Gibraltar and the Nile at Cairo. The variety of locations allowed him to represent the sea in a broad range of temporal and atmospheric conditions, ranging from the ice-locked seas of Denmark and Norway to the sun-drenched warm waters of the Mediterranean.
