William Holman Hunt

1827 - 1910 • English • Painter • Pre-Raphaelite

". .. another subject which I am sanguine about ... I wonder it has never before been done, it is so full of meaning (one reason however against it) and it is so simple- The scapegoat in the Wilderness by the Dead Sea somewhere, with the mark of the bloody hands on the head." - William Holman Hunt

Throughout his career Hunt remained faithful to the meticulous, hard-edged, hyperreal technique (reminiscent of van EYCK) that characterized the early painting of the PRE-RAPHAELITE, brothers." He also maintained his interest in religious, moralizing themes, albeit with extremely individualized approaches. His Awakening Conscience (1853-54) is about a "fallen" young woman: She rises from the lap of her lover, who is seated at the piano, as from the sudden realization of the error of her ways. The clutter of objects in the picture all have symbolic meaning, from a cat tormenting a bird under the table to a mantel clock that shows high noon just moments away. RUSKIN wrote a letter to The Times praising this picture. When Hunt traveled to Palestine he was inspired to paint The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854-60 ). Because the purpose of his work was questionable to them, he had a difficult time convincing Jewish models to pose for him in Jerusalem; he had to find his sitters when he returned to London. The other painting he conceived in the Holy Land was The Scapegoat (1854-55), which he wrote about to his friend, PATRON, and business adviser, Thomas Combe, in a letter that is quoted from above. This is a strange scene, with a rainbow arching into the water where the goat stands looking out at the viewer. The source of the picture is Leviticus 16, in which the Day of Atonement ritual is described. After 1860, Hunt remained the only artist of the group faithful to the Pre-Raphaelite ideals, continuing to paint biblical and modern life subjects in his highly wrought style. In Florence with him, in September 1866 his wife gave birth to their child, became ill, and died in December, after they had been married just a year. Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1866-68), a picture on which Hunt had been working, became a memorial to her. It was probably inspired by a poem of Keats: Isabella is worshiping at a shrine she has erected in her lover's memory. Hunt returned to England, traveled again to Florence and Jerusalem, and in 1872 married his sister- in-law. The wedding took place in Switzerland because marriage with a deceased wife's sister was then illegal in England.