Editing William Holman Hunt (section)

==Biography==
Born at [[Cheapside]], [[City of London]], as '''William Hobman Hunt''', to warehouse manager William Hunt (1800–1856) and Sarah ({{circa|1798}}–1884), daughter of William Hobman, of [[Rotherhithe]]<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34058|title=Hunt, William Holman (1827–1910), painter|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/34058|last1=Bronkhurst|first1=Judith}}</ref> Hunt adopted the name "Holman" instead of "Hobman" when he discovered that a clerk had misspelled the name that way after his baptism at the [[Anglican]] church of [[St Mary's Church, Ewell|Saint Mary the Virgin, Ewell]]. The Hobman family were wealthy, and it was thought that Sarah had made an unequal marriage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehistoryofart.org/william-holman-hunt/biography/|title=William Holman Hunt Biography|website=www.thehistoryofart.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Amor |first=Anne Clark |title=William Holman Hunt: the True Pre-Raphaelite |publisher=Constable |location=London |year=1989 |pages=14–15 |isbn=0094687706 }}</ref> After eventually entering the [[Royal Academy]] art schools, having initially been rejected, Hunt rebelled against the influence of its founder [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]]. He formed the [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]] movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]]. Along with [[John Everett Millais]] they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities of [[medieval art]], in opposition to the alleged rationalism of the [[Renaissance]] embodied by [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]. He had many pupils including [[Robert Braithwaite Martineau]].

Hunt married twice. After a failed engagement to his model [[Annie Miller]], in 1861 he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of ''Isabella''. When, at the end of 1866, she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb at [[Fiesole]], having it brought down to the [[English Cemetery, Florence|English Cemetery]] in [[Florence]], beside the tomb of [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]].<ref name=FanWauHuntgravepix>{{cite web|url=https://www.jessewaugh.com/blog/2013/3/31/pre-rafaelite-tombs-at-the-english-cemetery-in-florence|title=Tomb of Fanny Waugh Hunt (''There are several pictures of it if you scroll down the page.'')|work=Pre-Rafaelite Tombs at the English Cemetery in Florence|author=Jess Waugh (compiler)|date=31 March 2013|publisher=Jess Waugh Ltd., NY|access-date=9 June 2019}}</ref> He had a close connection with [[St Mark's English Church, Florence|St. Mark's Church in Florence]], and paid for the [[Chalice|communion chalice]] inscribed in memory of his wife. His second wife, Edith, was Fanny's youngest sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britain [[Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907|to marry one's deceased wife's sister]], so the two of them travelled abroad and married at [[Neuchâtel]] (in [[Romandy|francophone]] Switzerland) in November 1875.<!---they seem to have become engaged in 1873 which some sources give as their marriage year.  I find 1875 more plausible, however ... ---><ref name=2emeMariageselonBB>{{cite web|title=William Holman Hunt (1827–1910)|work=Pre-Raphaelite artist and his connections to Ewell| url= http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/HolmanHunt.html |author=Brian Bouchard (compiler)|date=2011|publisher=Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre| access-date=9 June 2019}}</ref> This led to a grave conflict with other family members, notably his former Pre-Raphaelite colleague [[Thomas Woolner]], who had once been in love with Fanny and had married the middle sister, Alice Waugh.

Hunt's works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}} He achieved some early note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as ''[[The Hireling Shepherd]]'' and ''[[The Awakening Conscience]]''. However, it was for his religious paintings that he became famous, initially ''[[The Light of the World (painting)|The Light of the World]]'' (1851–1853), now in the chapel at [[Keble College, Oxford]], England; a later version (1900) toured the world and now has its home in [[St Paul's Cathedral]], London. Hunt worked at his home in Prospect Place (now [[Cheyne Walk]]), [[Chelsea, London]].<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp102-106 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 2004 |access-date=21 December 2022}}</ref>

In the mid-1850s Hunt travelled to the [[Holy Land]] in search of accurate topographical and ethnographical material for further religious works, and to employ his "powers to make more tangible [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]]'s history and teaching";<ref>Hunt, W.H., ''Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood''; London: Macmillan; 1905, Vol. 1, p. 349</ref> there he painted ''[[The Scapegoat (painting)|The Scapegoat]]'', ''[[The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple]]'', and ''[[The Shadow of Death]]'', along with many landscapes of the region. Hunt also painted many works based on poems, such as ''[[Isabella, or the Pot of Basil|Isabella]]'' and ''[[The Lady of Shalott]]''. He eventually built his own house in [[Jerusalem]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://victorianweb.org/painting/whh/plates/house.html|title=William Holman Hunt's House and Studio in Jerusalem|website=victorianweb.org}}</ref>

He eventually had to abandon painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a large version of ''[[The Light of the World (painting)|The Light of the World]]'' hanging in [[St Paul's Cathedral]], [[London]], were completed with the help of his assistant, [[Edward Robert Hughes]].

Holman Hunt lived and had a studio at [[18 Melbury Road]] in [[Holland Park]], West London, from 1903 until his death.<ref name="victorian-web-hunt">{{cite web| url=https://victorianweb.org/painting/whh/homes/1.html | title=The Home and Studio of William Holman Hunt in Holland Park | first=Jacqueline | last=Banerjee | work=The Victorian Web | accessdate=31 August 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/archive/w-holman-hunt-18-melbury-road-kensington-w-to-sir-edward-poynter | title=W. Holman Hunt, 18 Melbury Road, Kensington, W., to [Sir Edward] Poynter | date=7 January 1906 | publisher=[[Royal Academy of Arts]] | location=UK | work=RA Collection: Archive | number=RAA/SEC/6/27/1 | accessdate=31 August 2023 }}</ref> He died on 7 September 1910 and was buried at [[St Paul's Cathedral]] in London.