Artist Information

Julius Holm


United States
1855 - 1930

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Julius O. Holm was born in Smaalene, Norway in 1853 or 1854.  After his confirmation into the church in 1970, he worked as a shoemaker’s assistant.  Following that, he entered the Norwegian military as a non-commissioned officer in Oslo, eventually being sent to Stockholm for three years.  In 1880, he immigrated to the US, moving to Minneapolis.  In Minneapolis, Holm worked as a house painter for the majority of his life, though he aspired to be a portrait artist.  He struggled to achieve this goal, though he did attempt to leave his house painting occupation and work as a full-time portrait painter from 1897 to 1906; he became successful enough to hire a relative, Sophia Holm, as an assistant.  Sophia passed away at the age of thirty in 1903, and within a few years Holm returned to house painting, though he continued to paint on the side.  He died on November 25th, 1930 at the age of 74.  

Sources

Meister, Mark J. “The Man Who Painted the Lake Gervais Tornado.” Minnesota History, vol. 45, no.
8, 1977, pp. 329–332. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20178510.

George Arbanas, ‘20
November 2019