ART & ARTISTS: William Holman Hunt

Monday 4 June 2012

William Holman Hunt - part 2

William Holman Hunt Self-portrait 1867
oil on canvas 104 x 73 cm

William Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910) was, along with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848.

This is part 2 of a 2-part post on Holman Hunt. For biographical notes and earlier works, see part 1 also.

1866 Il Dolce Far Niente
oil on panel

1866 The Festival of St. Swithin ( The Dovecot )
oil on canvas 73 x 91 cm
© 2006 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford


1866-68 Fanny Holman Hunt oil on canvas 106.5 x 73.5 cm

The above portrait is clearly based on this photograph of Fanny taken in December 1865 shortly before her marriage. She died in Florence having given birth to Cyril in 1866. Her sister Edith becameHolman Hunt's second wife.

1868 Isabella and the Pot of Basil
oil on canvas 187 x 116 cm

1868-9 Bianca
oil on canvas

1870 A Flood

1870 The Shadow of Death
oil on canvas 214.2 x 168.2 cm


c1882-3 Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at 22 years of Age oil on panel 30 x 23 cm

On 12 April 1853, the remaining members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood met for breakfast in Millais's studio, to make portrait drawings of each other which could be sent to Thomas Woolner, who had immigrated to Australia six months before. Hunt's drawings, of Millais and Rossetti, are the finest of this series, most of which are in the National Portrait Gallery. His pastel drawing of Rossetti (now at Manchester City Art Gallery) had become badly rubbed by 1882, and Hunt painted the above replica in oils to commemorate his friend's recent death.