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WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT (1827-1910)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 938 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:HOLMAN See also:HUNT (1827-1910)  , See also:English artist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 2nd of See also:April 1827 . An ancestor on his See also:father's See also:side See also:bore arms against See also:Charles I., and went over to See also:Holland, where he fought in the See also:Protestant cause . He returned with See also:William III., but the See also:family failed to recover their See also:property . See also:Holman See also:Hunt's father was the manager of a See also:city warehouse,with tastes See also:superior to his position in See also:life . He loved books and pictures, and encouraged his son to pursue See also:art as an amusement, though not as a profession . At the See also:age of twelve and a See also:half Holman Hunt was placed in a city See also:office, but he employed his leisure in See also:reading, See also:drawing and See also:painting, and at sixteen began an See also:independent career as an artist . When he was between seventeen and eighteen he entered the Royal See also:Academy See also:schools, where he soon made acquaintance with his lifelong friend See also:John See also:Everett See also:Millais, then a boy of fifteen . In 1846 Holman Hunt sent to the Royal Academy his first picture (" Hark 1 "), which was followed by " Dr Rochecliffe performing Divine Service in the Cottage of Joceline Joliffe at See also:Woodstock," in 1847, and " The See also:Flight of Madeline and See also:Porphyrio" (from See also:Keats's See also:Eve of St See also:Agnes) in 1848 . In this See also:year he and Millais, with the co-operation of See also:Dante See also:Gabriel See also:Rossetti and others, initiated the famous Pre-Raphaelite See also:movement in art . Typical examples of the new creed were furnished in the next year's Academy by Millais's " See also:Isabella " and Holman Hunt's " See also:Rienzi vowing to obtain See also:Justice for the See also:Death of his See also:Young See also:Brother." This last pathetic picture, which was sold to Mr See also:Gibbons for 1o5, was followed in 1850 by " A Converted See also:British Family sheltering a See also:Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druid's " (bought by Mr See also:Combe, of the See also:Clarendon See also:Press, See also:Oxford, for 15o), and in 1851 by " See also:Valentine protecting Sylvia from See also:Proteus." This See also:scene from The Two Gentlemen of See also:Verona was very warmly praised by See also:Ruskin (in letters to The Times), who declared that as studies both of drapery and of every See also:minor detail there had been nothing in art so See also:earnest and See also:complete since the days of See also:Albert See also:Durer . It gained a See also:prize at See also:Liverpool, and is reckoned as the finest of Holman Hunt's earlier See also:works . In 1852 he exhibited " A Hireling Shepherd." " Claudio and Isabella," from Measure for Measure, and a brilliant study of the See also:Downs near See also:Hastings, called in the See also:catalogue " Our English Coasts, 1852 " (since generally known as " Strayed See also:Sheep "), were exhibited in 1853 .

For three of his works Holman Hunt was awarded prizes of £50 and £6o at Liverpool and See also:

Birmingham, but in 1851 he had become so discouraged by the difficulty of selling his pictures, that he had resolved to give up art and learn farming, with a view to See also:emigration . In 1854 he achieved his first See also:great success by the famous picture of " The See also:Light of the See also:World," an allegorical See also:representation of See also:Christ knocking at the See also:door of the human soul . This See also:work produced perhaps the greatest effect of any religious painting of the See also:century . " For the first See also:time in See also:England," wrote William See also:Bell See also:Scott, " a picture became a subject of conversation and See also:general See also:interest from one end of the See also:island to the other, and indeed continued so for many years." " The Awakening See also:Conscience," exhibited at the same time, depicted a tragic moment in a life of See also:sin, when a girl, stricken with memories of her See also:innocent childhood, rises suddenly from the knees of her paramour . The inner meaning of both these pictures was explained by Ruskin in letters to The Times in May 1854 . " The Light of the World " was See also:purchased by Mr Combe, and was given by his wife to See also:Keble See also:College . In 1904 Holman Hunt completed a second " Light of the World," slightly altered from the See also:original, the See also:execution of which was due to his dissatisfaction with the way in which the Keble picture was shown there; and he in-tended the second edition of it for as wide public See also:exhibition as possible . It was acquired by Mr Charles See also:Booth, who arranged for the exhibition of the new " Light of the World " in all the large cities of the colonies . In See also:January 1854 Holman Hunt See also:left England for See also:Syria and See also:Palestine with the See also:desire to revivifyoncanvas the facts of Scripture See also:history, " surrounded by the very See also:people and circumstances of the life in See also:Judaea of old days." The first See also:fruit of this See also:idea, which may be. said to have dominated the artist's life, was " The Scapegoat," a solitary outcast See also:animal See also:standing alone on the See also:salt-encrusted shores of the Dead See also:Sea, with the mountains of See also:Edom in the distance, seen under a gorgeous effect of See also:purple evening light . It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, together with three Eastern landscapes . His next picture (186o). one of the most elaborate and most successful of his works, was " The Finding of our Saviour in the See also:Temple." Like all his few pictures as the painter of " The Light of the World," " The Scapegoat," " The Finding of our Saviour in the Temple " and " The See also:Triumph of the Innocents "; and his greatness was recognized by his inclusion in the See also:Order of Merit . His History of Pre-Raphaelitism, a subject on which he could speak as a first authority, but not without dissent from at least one living member of the P.R.B., was published in 1905 .

On the 7th of See also:

September 1910 he died in London, and on September 12th his remains, after See also:cremation at Golder's See also:Green, were buried in St See also:Paul's See also:Cathedral, with See also:national honours . important pictures, it was the work of years . Many causes contributed to the delay in its completion, including a See also:sentence of what was tantamount to See also:excommunication (afterwards revoked) passed on all See also:Jews acting as See also:models . Thousands crowded to see this picture, which was exhibited in London and in many English provincial towns . It was purchased for £5500, and is now in the Birmingham Municipal Art See also:Gallery . Holman Hunt's next great religious picture was " The See also:Shadow of Death " (exhibited separately in 1873), an imaginary incident in the life of our See also:Lord, who, lifting His arms with weariness after labour in His workshop, throws a shadow on the See also:wall as of a See also:man crucified, which is perceived by His See also:mother . This work was presented to See also:Manchester by See also:Sir William See also:Agnew . Meanwhile there had appeared at the Royal Academy in 1861 " A See also:Street in See also:Cairo: The Lanternmaker's Courtship," and in 1863 " The See also:King of See also:Hearts," and a portrait of the Right Hon . See also:Stephen Lushington, D.C.L . In 1866 came " Isabella and the Pot of See also:Basil," " London See also:Bridge on the See also:Night of the See also:Marriage of the See also:Prince of See also:Wales," and " The See also:Afterglow." In 1867 Holman Hunt sent a charming See also:head of " A Tuscan Girl " to the Grosvenor Gallery and two pictures to the Royal Academy . These were " Il See also:dolce far niente " and a lifelike study of pigeons in See also:rain called " The Festival of St Swithin," now in the See also:Taylor See also:Building, Oxford, with many others of this artist's work . After two years' See also:absence Holman Hunt returned to See also:Jerusalem in 1875, where he was engaged upon his great picture of " The Triumph of the Innocents," which proved to be the most serious labour of his life .

The subject is an imaginary See also:

episode of the flight into See also:Egypt, in which the See also:Holy Family are attended by a procession of the Holy Innocents, marching along the See also:waters of life and illuminated with unearthly light . Its execution was delayed by an extraordinary See also:chapter of accidents . For months Holman Hunt waited in vain for the arrival of his materials, and at last he unfortunately began on an unsuitable piece of See also:linen procured in despair at Jerusalem . Other troubles supervened, and when he arrived in England he found his picture in such a See also:state that he was compelled to abandon it and begin again . The new version of the work, which is somewhat larger and changed in several points, was not completed till 1885 . Meanwhile the old picture was relined and so skilfully treated that the artist was able to complete it satisfactorily, and there are now two pictures entitled " The Triumph of the Innocents," one in the Liverpool, the other in the Birmingham Art Gallery . The pictures exhibited between 1875 and 1885 included "The See also:Ship," a realistic picture of the See also:deck of a passenger ship by night (1878), and portraits of his son (188o), Sir See also:Richard See also:Owen (1881) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1884) . All of these were exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, where they were followed by " The See also:Bride of See also:Bethlehem " (1885), " See also:Amaryllis " and a portrait of his son (tracing a drawing on a window) in 1886 . His most important later work is " May-See also:Day, Magdalen See also:Tower," a See also:record of the service of See also:song which has been held on the tower of Magdalen, Oxford, at sunrise on May-Day from time immemorial . The subject had interested the artist for a great many years, and, after " The Triumph of the Innocents " was completed, he worked at it with his usual devotion, climbing up the tower for See also:weeks together in the See also:early See also:morning to study the sunrise from the See also:top . This radiant poem of the simplest and purest devotion was exhibited at the See also:Gainsborough Gallery in Old See also:Bond Street in 189r . He continued to send occasional contributions to the exhibitions cf the Royal See also:Water-See also:Colour Society, to the New Gallery and to the New English Art See also:Club .

One of the most remarkable of his later works (New Gallery, 1899) is " The See also:

Miracle of Sacred See also:Fire in the See also:Church of the See also:Sepulchre, Jerusalem." By his strong and See also:constant individuality, no less than by his See also:peculiar methods of work, Holman Hunt holds a somewhat isolated position among artists . He remained entirely unaffected by all the various movements in the art-world after 1850 . His ambition was always " to serve as high See also:priest and expounder of the excellence of the works of the Creator." He spent too much labour on each work to complete many; but perhaps no painter of the 19th century produced so great an impression by a See See also:Archdeacon See also:Farrar and Mrs Alice See also:Meynell, " William Holman Hunt, his Life and Work " (Art See also:Annual) (London, 1893) ; John Ruskin, See also:Modern Painters; The Art of England (Lecture) [consult See also:Gordon Crauford's Ruskin's Notes on the Pictures of Mr Holman Hunt, 1886] ; See also:Robert de la Sizeranne, La Peinture anglaise contemporasne (See also:Paris, 1895); W . B . Scott, Autobiographical Notes; W . M . Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelite Diaries and Letters; See also:Percy H . Bate, The Pre-Raphaelite Painters (1899); Sir W . Bayliss, Five Great Painters of the Victorian Era (1902) . (C .

End of Article: WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT (1827-1910)
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