The owners of Holden and Co. Fine Art have traveled extensively to European capitals, historical cities, country estates and monuments, not to mention various World Heritage Sites throughout Latin America. This grand touring and collecting has been in the same vein if not the glamour, as was fashionable in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries. This educational and cultural “right of passage” was a must for master artists, amateur artists, aristocrats and dreamers toward their goal of being “civilized” and captured best in Ivory/Merchant movies! Think “A Room With a View” or “Gosford Park”.
On these Grand Tours, artists and patrons alike bought, painted, supported and pursued the arts with a vengeance and helped each other survive. Grand Touring produced many masterpieces by Canaletto (Venice, London) and Belotto (Capitals of Eastern Europe) to name a few, as well as by other artists we all know and love today.
Many of these traditions are gone and many of these touring or “study” works of art are rare or getting harder to come by as significantly fewer artists practice these techniques. The Arts are simply not as appreciated in today’s technologically oriented environment. Holden and Co. Fine Art has an extensive collection of Master Drawings, Antique Renderings and Latin American Drawings from our journey’s abroad. Appreciation of the works and future values can be one and the same. Ross Crowe and Scott Hartle are proud members of the Royal Oaks Foundation, a part of the English National Trust and the Italian Patrimony Society both of which where created to support and preserve great cultural heritages and sites…and the art of these periods.