William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was an English painter. In 1848 he founded the ‘Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’ together with, among others, the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. Together this little group of young artists and poets, which comprised the brotherhood, turned against what they considered the mediocre taste of the middle class that was favoured too much by the Royal Academy of London. In the first years after 1848 the work by the Pre-Raphaelites often arose out of religious themes. In the early 50’s of the nineteenth century Millais and Rossetti addressed themselves to other subjects. Hunt was the most pious member of the brotherhood, he was the only member who continued to paint religious subjects, apart from a few exceptions. During his career Hunt more and more often resided outside of England. He regularly worked in Jerusalem, in order to have first-hand access to archaeological and historical details for his paintings with a Biblical theme. In 1905 he published his autobiography. In the same year he also wrote a book about the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood entitled Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He died five years later in London.