Willam Holman Hunt

WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT- A BIOGRAPHY By A. C. GISSING. With Illustrations. Contents include: CHAPTER PAGE I. CHILD AND STUDENT. 1827 TO 1847 II II. THE PRE-RAPHAELITES. 1848 . . 21 III. D. G. ROSSETTI. 1848 TO 1849 33 IV. POVERTY AND PUBLIC INSULT. 1849 TO 1850 43 V. VALENTINE AND SYLVIA. 1850 TO 1851 . 52 VI. WORK AND HAPPY INTERCOURSE. 1851 TO 1852 63 VII. FIRST RECOGNITION. 1853 TO 1854 . 76 VIII. EGYPT AND PALESTINE. 1854 . . 91 IX. THE DEAD SEA. 1854 . . . 105 X, WORK AND ADVENTURE, 1854 TO 1856 . 117 XL CRIPPLED THROUGH LACK OF MEANS. 1856 TO 1858 ..... 131 XIL ASSISTANCE AT LAST. 1858 TO 1860 . 145 XIII. MARRIAGE AND BEREAVEMENT. 1860 TO 1869 . . 156 XIV. JERUSALEM AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 1869 TO 1874 ..... 172 XV. THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 1874 TO 1886 .... 183 XVI. WORK UNDER HAPPIER CIRCUMSTANCES. 1886 TO 1899 . . . - 197 XVII. THE ARTIST AND THE MAN . .217 XVIII. LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 1899 TO 1910 234 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. William Holman Hunt from the painting by Sir W. B. Richmond, R. A. Frontispiece Rienzi 38 The Hireling Shepherd 76 The Awakened Conscience 90 The Finding of Christ in the Temple 1 54 The Shadow of Death 182 . The Triumph of the Innocents 1 94 Holman Hunt and Ruskin at Brantwood 210 The Miracle of Sacred Fire 214 My grateful acknowledgements are due to the following for their kindness in allowing me to quote from the works of various authors as named below and in the text Mr. Arthur Severn, Miss Violet Severn and Messrs. George Allen Unwin Ltd., publishers of the only authorized edition of Ruskins works quotations fromModerx Painters, The Art of England Arrows of the Chace Academy Notes. Mr. W. M. Meredith and Messrs. Constable Co., Ltd. The Letters of George Meredith. Mr. W. Trench Fox Memories of Old Friends, by Caroline Fox. Messrs. Methuen Co., Ltd. quotations reprinted from The Life and Letters of Sir J. E. Millais. Messrs. Hodder Stoughton, Ltd. Fifty Tears of Work without Wages, by Charles Rowley. PREFACE: HOLMAN HUNT and his work have been more misunderstood and more misrepresented than has been the case with almost any other painter, and it may possibly therefore astonish some readers to learn that it was he who was the originator and leader of Pre-Raphaelitism, and that Rossetti was not a Pre-Raphaelite at all in the originally accepted meaning of the word. That such is an undoubted fact is evident to all who take the pains to investigate the matter for themselves a biography of Holman Hunt would therefore be seriously defective if it failed to trace out the way in which this painter was related to the other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It would be equally defective if it omitted to record his motives as an artist, for the life of a great painter is inextricably bound up with his work. And it is all the more important to emphasize this point in these days because the tendency of a certain class of biographers is to dwell persistently upon the trifles of domestic life, especially if they are of a sensational or painful nature, to the exclusion of matters of far greater import with the result that when we have finished their books we know much about the circumstances but little about either the mental develop ment or the inner character of the man or woman whom they have set out to portray...