Where was William Holman Hunt born?

William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt (April 2, 1827 - September 7, 1910), British painter, La. One of the founders of the Pre-Palestinian movement. Born in Cheapside on April 2, 1827, his father was a shopkeeper and did not want Hunter to learn painting. Therefore, Hunter did not come into contact with oil painting until he was sixteen years old. At that time, he made a living by painting portraits and began to study painting. Hunter often imitated the works of his predecessors, such as some famous Italian paintings in the 15th century. These studies played an important role in his life. In 1845, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he met Millais and Rossetti. So they collaborated to create the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, determined to revive the British painting scene. His major works include: "The Awakening of Conscience", "The Shepherd", "The Image of Death", "The Light of the World", etc.

Chinese name: William Holman Hunt

Foreign name: William Holman Hunt

Nationality: British

Birthplace: British Cheapside

Date of birth: April 2, 1827

Date of death: September 7, 1910

Occupation: Painter

Main achievements: One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelites

Representative works: "The Light of the World", "The Awakening of Conscience"

Character Profile

Hunt was born in Cheapside on April 2, 1827. His father was a shopkeeper and did not want Hunt to be a painter. After he was twelve years old, he was asked to work as a handyman in a certain office. However, his employer saw Hunter's talent and persuaded him to become a painter. His father finally reluctantly agreed, saying, "It's okay if you use your own money to paint." So after Hunter turned sixteen, he started to study painting while painting portraits to make a living. Fortunately, he found a job as a trainee at an art academy, which made it easier for him to study.

The year after the Pre-Raphaelite painter Maddox Brown (1821~1893) returned from Italy, he gathered together his vivid and fresh realist works for an exhibition. Hunter visited the exhibition and was impressed. Needless to say, Brown exhibited his famous painting entitled "Goodbye, Motherland!" at this exhibition. "of. The immigrant couple who want to leave their motherland say their final farewell to their beloved motherland. There is something truly touching about their real eyes and faces. The excited Holman Hunt immediately ran to Brown's studio and offered to be his student.

After careful consideration, Brown agreed to his request, but Hunter only stayed in Brown's studio for four months. Because Hunter only asked this young man to paint still lifes in order to let him experience the method of learning directly from nature. Hunter was tired of this. The young Hunter was more interested in painting ancient legends or wonderful stories than painting cold still lifes, so he felt dissatisfied and left Brown's studio. However, by this time, Hunter had firmly grasped the spirit of depicting reality.

Biography

William Holman Hunt's original middle name was "Hobman", but he disliked the name very much. During his wedding, the minister misspelled his middle name, and from then on he began calling himself Holman. After applying hard, young Hunter finally entered the Royal College of Art. He soon rebelled against the Academy and organized the Pre-Raphaelites in 1848, along with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. They hope to depict the truth of things in a religious spirit by paying attention to the details of the natural state. This religious attitude was deeply influenced by the spiritual qualities of medieval art and opposed the rationalism of Raphael since the Renaissance. The Scapegoat

Hunt's work was initially unsuccessful and was attacked by many art world newspapers as clumsy and ugly. His early works on modern urban and rural life gained him some recognition, such as The Shepherd and The Awakening of Conscience . But it was some of his religious paintings that made him famous, initially The Light of the World, which was so popular that it was toured to the United States and other British colonies. After he traveled to the Christian Holy Land in Palestine to conduct topographical and ethnographic surveys, he painted "The Scapegoat", "Image of Death", and many other local landscapes. Hunter also painted many illustrations based on poetry, such as Claudia and Isabella and The Lady of Charlotte. All of these paintings pay great attention to detail, use strong colors, and There are many carefully designed symbols arranged in the painting. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carré, who argued that the world itself should be read as a series of visual signs, and Hunt felt that it was a painter's responsibility to reveal The connection between these signs and facts. Among the Raphaelites, Hunt maintained throughout his life the concepts they originally preached. Later, he stopped painting due to the deterioration of his eyesight. His last work, "Lady of Charlotte," was completed with the help of others.

Personal Marriage

Marriage

Hunter was married twice. After his engagement to model Anne Miller failed, he married Fanny Waugh, using her as a model for Isabella and sculpting her tomb after she died in childbirth in Italy.

His second wife, Edith, was Fanny's sister. Since British law at the time prohibited intermarriage with the deceased wife's sisters, they went abroad for their wedding. The marriage resulted in severance from much of their family, including fellow Pre-Raphaelite Thomas Woolner, husband of Edith and Fanny's third sister Alice.

Origins

Hunt wrote his autobiography, The Brotherhood of Raphael, to explain the origins of the Pre-Raphaelites and to illustrate his own contributions. Much of his writing was an attempt to control the interpretation of his work. In 1905, King Edward VII awarded him the British Order of Merit. He spent his later years living in a small village by the Thames until his death in 1910.

Artistic Achievements

Skills

Once he painted a fly on the window, the manager mistakenly thought it was real, which shows his high painting skills. It wasn't until Hunter was able to make a living by painting portraits that his parents no longer opposed him learning to paint. At the age of 17, he became an auditor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and often went to the National Gallery to copy masterpieces. After getting acquainted with Millais, he studied under Brown and studied in Brown's studio for 4 months. The British critic Ruskin proposed in 1847 that painters should "return to nature." This slogan was very popular among the young painters Hunt, Millais and Rossetti. The name "Prephaelite Brotherhood" challenged academic art. They held three exhibitions under this name before breaking up.

Based

At the age of 27, Hunter traveled to Egypt and Palestine, and later to Jerusalem. He died on September 7, 1910. Hunter's art is based on sketching, and he pays attention to detailed expression in his works, which is also a symbolic characteristic of the German Nazarenes. Therefore, some people think that Pre-Raphaelite art is the prelude of European Symbolism. Hunter's works are characterized by their ability to explore the mysteries of the human soul and express the national spirit. They are often based on the Bible and literary works, especially the works of Shakespeare. Among the Pre-Raphaelite painters, Hunt was an honest and reliable elder.

Hunter is also a painter with a particularly strong religious feeling. His works are the most religious among the Pre-Raphaelite painters, such as "The Light of the World" (1850-1853) (hidden in St. Paul University). church). The painting directly expresses Christ's thoughts. Christ carries a lamp, walks through the dark night woods, comes to the door of a wooden house, raises his hand and knocks.

Main works

"The Light of the World"

The Light of the World (1851)

Hunt's masterpiece "The Light of the World" (collected Keble College, Oxford), the image is carefully and accurately depicted, the colors are strong and the preaching is prominent. Christ appears in the dawn holding a candle, knocking on a closed door, with weeds growing in front of it - Hunt's painting has been copied millions of copies, becoming the spiritual pillar of people in the Victorian era and a symbol of the era. A portrait of a saint, full of symbolism, emotion and surreal detail, as sweet and heavy as plum pudding.

This plot is taken from the Bible: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. . It shows a very religious and holy beautiful picture. In the upper left corner of the picture we can see the door frame. It seems that the door has never been opened. There are many plants growing in the weeds. There is even a bat hovering above it. The ground at the door is full of thorns. , Jesus came to the door at night. He was fulfilling the duties of a prophet, priest and king. He was wearing a white robe, representing the Holy Spirit, a vestment inlaid with precious stones, representing the priesthood, and a golden crown on his head. , there are thorns growing on the golden crown, and the lamp in his hand is the only source of light in the whole picture. When Christ enters a person's heart, he brings light to the soul. This is the main meaning of the picture. There are two lights, one is the light of conscience, which arouses your conscience, and the other is the light of tranquility, which brings a hope of saving the soul. Jesus carries a lamp in his hand, the lamp of conscience. Therefore, he specially knocked on doors that were closed and overgrown with weeds and thorns to awaken people's consciences. There was a chain on the lamp to tie his hand, indicating that the lamp that illuminated others also restrained Jesus. hand, his existence is related to this responsibility. There is also a halo on the head of Christ, which symbolizes the hope of salvation for the soul. The place where the halo shines is the thorn of the thorn, which is a very holy light. Wherever this light goes, everything will be drowned by it. Therefore, the light in this painting is very strange. The painting itself emits light like a light box. In fact, it is not. The effect of the painting has a luminous effect, and its light has a strong appeal and an atmosphere, even if it is not Christians will also be deeply moved.

"The Awakening Conscience"

The Awakening Conscience (1853)

When artists of the Raphael School wanted to express some themes related to reality, they found On the theme of "fallen women", Hunter is also among them. He once wandered around the neighborhoods where prostitutes lived, hoping to find inspiration. The prototype of the heroine in this work is not a prostitute, but a rich girl who is looking for pleasure. Hunter loves her so much that he wants to marry her and "improve" her "morals". But her morals proved unimprovable.

This work shows a woman who looks like a housekeeper, standing up suddenly from the lap of her lover (probably the male host), as if her self-consciousness has been stimulated and she decides to escape from some bad situation. Although it is full of moral symbols, this is still an outstanding oil painting that "reflects the dark side of Victorian family life."

His "The Awakening of Conscience" (1852~1854) shows the characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelites. He carefully depicts every detail with neat brushwork and uses them to imply the moral lesson of the work. Although the details are realistic, the painting has nothing of the realism of Courbet and Daumier's work; it is an artificial garden whose flowers are artificial and have no fragrance.

Hunt's "The Pre-Raphaelites and the Pre-Raphaelite Society" is the main work that tells the views of the Pre-Raphaelites in an autobiographical form. As an important painter of the "Pre-Raphaelite", Hunter always runs through a kind of religious moral preaching in his works. "Discovery of Conscience" is such a painting. In a gorgeous room, a music teacher and his female student are under the theme of "Discovery of Conscience". One shows kindness and the other shows surprise. The artist depicts the two characters in a freehand style, which is extremely lifelike and vivid. He advocates facing nature and facing life. This work shows the painter's attitude towards life.

"Claudio and Isabella"

ClaudioandIsabella (1850)

Performs the scene in the play "Tit for Tat": Claudio wants to convince his His sister Isabel sells herself to his captors so that his own life can be saved. The figures in the picture are in typical medieval costumes depicted by the Pre-Raphaelites. The woman is slender and pale, with a beautiful face. The man's face is in shadow. There are musical instruments in the background. Outside the window are plants and the city in the distance. Judging from Isabel's kind and loving expression and his brother's selfishness and anger, Hunter is more on the side of women. This is related to the rise of the feminist movement in the Victorian era, when people with conscience began to respect women.

"Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus"

Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (1851)

Performs the play "Two Venetian Gentlemen" In the scene in "The one in the center is Valentin wearing a hat, Sylvia is modeled by Sidel, the one kneeling is Proteus, and the one standing against the tree is the maid Julia. All the characters' costumes were handmade by Hunt himself, and all the models were his friends. The scene was painted in a London park filled with autumn leaves. It can be seen that Hunter was indeed loyal to the purpose of the Pre-Raphaelites and was the most sincere member who responded to Ruskin's call for the manual movement. So when the media thinks that the artist has "a confused mind or eyes, and the characters are complex and weird." Ruskin responded: "(For) perfect truth, power, and completion may be compared to a moment, a moment with the velvet on the breast and the chain armor of Valentine."

"The Scapegoat" 》

TheScapegoat (1856)

The production of this painting is far more interesting than itself. Hunter has always been very interested in the Middle East. In 1854, he went to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in the company of several Arabs. This work was painted by him with his easel on the arid salt sand ground, facing the same desolate scenery as in the painting. In order to prevent attacks by robbers and wild beasts, he always kept a gun on his lap while painting. After returning to London, he carefully studied the Jewish religious rituals and found that they always required two sheep to be brought into the temple during sacrifices. One was burned and dedicated to the god, the other was exiled to the wilderness, and the latter It is said that they bear the sins of mankind, so they are called "scapegoats". So Hunter performed "Here Comes the Sheep" again. However, this time his sheep was severely criticized by Ruskin: "This is a failed work, and religious passion has damaged the artistic aesthetic."

"Finding Christ in the Temple"

< p>The Finding of the Savior in the Temple (1862)

On January 16, 1854, in order to introduce as much realism into religious themes as possible, Hunter began his first trip to the Middle East. After studying Old and New Testament sources, he decided to represent the Virgin and Child in the temple, so that he could complete most of the composition without the need for a female model. But due to religious taboos, he still encountered many difficulties in finding models. Finally, he found the image of Christ in a Jewish school after returning to London. Later, the work was purchased by Mr. Ganback for ￡5,000, which was the highest price ever paid for a work by a living painter at the time.