In all his work Holroyd displays an impressive sincerity, with a fine sense of composition, and of style, allied to independent and modern feeling. He was appointed the first keeper of the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery) in 1897, and on the retirement of Sir Edward Poynter in 1906 he received the directorship of the National Gallery. He was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers and was knighted in 1903. His "Michael Angelo Buonarotti" (London, Duckworth, 1903) is a scholarly work of real value. He died on 19 November 1917.