William Holman Hunt | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait, 1867,Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence | |
| Born | William Hobman Hunt (1827-04-02)2 April 1827 Cheapside, London, England |
| Died | 7 September 1910(1910-09-07) (aged 83) London, England |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Movement | Orientalist;Pre-Raphaelites |
| Spouses |
|
| Signature | |
 | |
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
William Holman HuntOM (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was anEnglish painter and one of the founders of thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. These features were influenced by the writings ofJohn Ruskin andThomas Carlyle, according to whom the world itself should be read as a system of visual signs. For Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career. He was always keen to maximise the popular appeal and public visibility of his works.[1]
Born atCheapside,City of London, asWilliam Hobman Hunt, to warehouse manager William Hunt (1800–1856) and Sarah (c. 1798–1884), daughter of William Hobman, ofRotherhithe[2] Hunt adopted the name "Holman" instead of "Hobman" when he discovered that a clerk had misspelled the name that way after his baptism at theAnglican church ofSaint Mary the Virgin, Ewell. The Hobman family were wealthy, and it was thought that Sarah had made an unequal marriage.[3][4] After eventually entering theRoyal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected, Hunt rebelled against the influence of its founderSir Joshua Reynolds. He formed thePre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artistDante Gabriel Rossetti. Along withJohn Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities ofmedieval art, in opposition to the alleged rationalism of theRenaissance embodied byRaphael. He had many pupils includingRobert Braithwaite Martineau.
Hunt married twice. After a failed engagement to his modelAnnie Miller, in 1861 he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure ofIsabella. When, at the end of 1866, she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb atFiesole, having it brought down to theEnglish Cemetery inFlorence, beside the tomb ofElizabeth Barrett Browning.[5] He had a close connection withSt. Mark's Church in Florence, and paid for thecommunion chalice inscribed in memory of his wife. His second wife, Edith, was Fanny's youngest sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britainto marry one's deceased wife's sister, so the two of them travelled abroad and married atNeuchâtel (infrancophone Switzerland) in November 1875.[6] This led to a grave conflict with other family members, notably his former Pre-Raphaelite colleagueThomas Woolner, who had once been in love with Fanny and had married the middle sister, Alice Waugh.
Hunt's works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness.[citation needed] He achieved some early note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such asThe Hireling Shepherd andThe Awakening Conscience. However, it was for his religious paintings that he became famous, initiallyThe Light of the World (1851–1853), now in the chapel atKeble College, Oxford, England; a later version (1900) toured the world and now has its home inSt Paul's Cathedral, London. Hunt worked at his home in Prospect Place (nowCheyne Walk),Chelsea, London.[7]
In the mid-1850s Hunt travelled to theHoly Land in search of accurate topographical and ethnographical material for further religious works, and to employ his "powers to make more tangibleJesus Christ's history and teaching";[8] there he paintedThe Scapegoat,The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, andThe Shadow of Death, along with many landscapes of the region. Hunt also painted many works based on poems, such asIsabella andThe Lady of Shalott. He eventually built his own house inJerusalem.[9]
He eventually had to abandon painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a large version ofThe Light of the World hanging inSt Paul's Cathedral,London, were completed with the help of his assistant,Edward Robert Hughes.
Holman Hunt lived and had a studio at18 Melbury Road inHolland Park, West London, from 1903 until his death.[10][11] He died on 7 September 1910 and was buried atSt Paul's Cathedral in London.
Hunt published an autobiography in 1905.[12] Many of his late writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. That year, he was appointed to theOrder of Merit byKing Edward VII. At the end of his life, he lived inSonning-on-Thames. 18 Melbury Road has ablue plaque commemorating Hunt, added in 1923.[13]
Hunt's personal life was the subject ofDiana Holman-Hunt's bookMy Grandfather, his Life and Loves.[14]
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was depicted in twoBBCperiod dramas. The first,The Love School, in 1975, starredBernard Lloyd as Hunt. The second wasDesperate Romantics, in which Hunt is played byRafe Spall.[15]
FacingMar Elias Monastery is a stone bench erected by the wife of the painter, who painted some of his major works at this spot. The bench is inscribed with biblical verses inHebrew,Greek,Arabic andEnglish.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
 Hunt'sClaudio and Isabella,Smarthistory | |
| Hunt'sThe Awakening Conscience,Smarthistory |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
