Hunt, William Holman

born April 2, 1827, London, Eng.

died Sept. 7, 1910, London

British painter and cofounder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

He attended the Royal Academy schools and achieved his first public success with The Light of the World (1854). His paintings are characterized by hard colour, minute detail, and an emphasis on moral or social symbolism; their moral earnestness made them extemely popular in Victorian England. He spent two years in Syria and Palestine painting biblical scenes, such as The Scapegoat (1855), depicting the outcast animal on the shores of the Dead Sea. His autobiographical Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1905) is the basic sourcebook of the movement.

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▪ British painter

born April 2, 1827, London, Eng.

died Sept. 7, 1910, London

      British artist and prominent member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His style is characterized by clear, hard colour, brilliant lighting, and careful delineation of detail.

      In 1843 Hunt entered the Royal Academy schools where he met his lifelong friend, the painter John Everett Millais. Public opinion was at first hostile toward Hunt; but, in 1854 “The Light of the World” (Keble College, Oxford), an allegory of Christ knocking at the door of the human soul, was championed by John Ruskin and brought Hunt his first public success. In 1854 Hunt began a two-year visit to Syria and Palestine, where he completed in 1855 “The Scapegoat,” a painting depicting an outcast animal on the shores of the Dead Sea. Among the most important of his later paintings are “The Triumph of the Innocents” (two versions: 1884, Tate Gallery, London; 1885, Liverpool), “May Morning on Magdalen Tower” (1889; Lady Lever Art Gallery), and “The Miracle of the Sacred Fire” (1898), finished just before his sight began to fail.

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