William Holman Hunt

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William Holman Hunt , around 1885; Photography ( Woodburytypie ) by Herbert Rose Barraud
A British converted family hides a missionary from persecution by the Druids , 1850
Finding Jesus in the Temple , 1860
The shadow of death , 1870

William Holman Hunt (born April 2, 1827 in London , † September 7, 1910 ibid) was a British painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite group .

life and work

William Holman Hunt was the son of a department store operator and began training as a commercial clerk. He took drawing lessons and made sample designs. Between 1834 and 1844 he worked as a copyist in the British Museum and the National Gallery . In 1843 he applied to the Royal Academy Schools in London and was admitted on his third attempt in 1845. In 1848 Hunt was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . He admired John Ruskin's multi-volume Modern Painters from 1843 and the poems of John Keats . He became friends with John Everett Millais .

In the same year 1848 he exhibited his work St. Agnesabend at the Royal Academy , which was admired by Ruskin and is considered the first Pre-Raphaelite painting. As a devout Anglican , Hunt underlined the moral seriousness of this movement. The work A British Converted Family Hides a Missionary from Persecution by the Druids was criticized in 1850 for its uncompromising loyalty to nature. Another painting entitled Two Gentlemen from Verona was also not well received by the public in 1851. Hunt thought of emigrating. Ruskin's praise for three works in the following years, Der Mietling (1852), The Light of the World (1851/56) and Awakening Conscience (1853), made him refrain from such plans.

In January 1854 he went on a trip to the Holy Land ; In 1856 he returned to London. With the painting The Finding of Jesus in the Temple , which he sold in 1860, Hunt secured his finances and his reputation as an artist. In 1865 he married Fanny Waugh, who died a year later in Florence giving birth to her son Cyril. Hunt married again in 1875, Fanny's sister Edith. Between 1869 and 1878 he made several trips to Greece, Italy and Egypt and again to Palestine, which he visited for the fourth time in 1892.

From 1874 he no longer exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts , but in the Grosvenor Gallery and New Galleries. In 1882 he moved to Fulham , where he completed a total of 32 paintings, which were shown in the Fine Art Society in 1886 . Between 1886 and 1905 he painted The Lady of Shalott , which was inspired by the famous ballad of the same title by Alfred Tennyson . His work has also been shown at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts .

Hunt wrote an autobiography entitled Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood , which appeared in 1905. In 1906 and 1907 retrospective exhibitions of his work took place in London, Manchester , Liverpool and Glasgow . Hunt died in 1910 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Important works

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich 1950, Volume 1, page 746
  2. ^ Günther Metken: Pre-Raphaelites (1973/74) p. 75
  3. ↑ Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery: Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource: William Holman Hunt

literature

  • Günter Metken: Pre-Raphaelites . Exhibition catalog Baden-Baden 1973/1974; Pp. 75-99
  • Otto von Schleinitz: William Holman Hunt . Published by Veldhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1907
  • Caroline Dakers: The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society. Publisher: Yale University Press, 1999 ISBN 978-0-3000-8164-0

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Hunt, William Holman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite group
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1910
Place of death London