James Holmes RBA (1777 – 24 February 1860) was a painter in oil and water colour of genre scenes and miniatures.
James Holmes was at an early age apprenticed to the well-known engraver Robert Mitchell Meadows[1] and in 1800 engraved in stipple a portrait of Rickman after Hazlitt.
From 1798 to 1849 Holmes exhibited 21 paintings at the Royal Academy, including two miniatures (Miss Emma E. Kendrick[3] and Portraits of the infant children of J. Harlop, Esq.)
Holmes’s portraiture of George IV lead to a personal friendship in which they played music together.
Published engravings were done for some of Holmes’s paintings, including The Amulet and The Literary Souvenir.