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Following his heart
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William Holman Hunt was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood
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The Lady of Shalott
William Holman Hunt was born in London on April 2, 1827. Hunt left school and started working as a clerk at the age of 12. His heart was in painting and he convinced his reluctant parents to let him study at the Royal Academy. He was accepted as a student in 1844. It was here that he met Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Deeply influenced by critic John Ruskin's essays, they formed the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
Hunt's submission for the R.A. exhibition of 1848, a painting inspired by John Keats' Eve of St. Agnes, was well received. While at first paintings in the Pre-Raphaelite style were harshly criticised, his Light of the World, which he began in 1851, though initially criticised for its Catholic bent, grew immensely popular and was taken on a national tour. Hunt was also asked to paint a larger copy, which now hangs in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The painting also was taken out of England as postcards.
Hunt visited the Holy Land to paint biblical locations first hand. He made four trips to Palestine. His paintings like The Scapegoat were well received and he achieved a fair degree of fame and prosperity through his Palestine paintings.
From his later paintings, The Lady of Shalott anticipates the Art Noveau style.
He married twice — he lost his first wife Fanny in childbirth in 1865. He married Edith in 1875 and the couple had a son, Cyril. Hunt died on September 7, 1910.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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