William Hunt Biography
William Hunt is known as one of the creators of the Brotherhood of Pre -Raphaelites. The work of the master is a reflection of his eternal spiritual search. William Hunt considered the world as a system of visual signs and believed that the main task of the artist is to identify the relationship between these signs and events. He remained faithful to his ideals to the end. William Holman Hunt.
The picture "Self -portrait", the biography of William Hunt William Hunt was born on April 2 in London, in the family of a warehouse manager. Called by William Hobman Hunt, later he became William Holman Hunt - clerk incorrectly recorded the name during baptism. William decided that it was fate, because he was a devout Christian. From childhood, William Hunt passionately dreamed of becoming an artist.
Already at the age of 16, he wrote portraits to order and shot copies from the paintings of famous masters. The young man was able to enter the Royal Academy of Arts in the year only on the third attempt-but independently, without anyone's patronage. With them in M William founded the Brotherhood of the Pre -Raphaelites. The painting “The English family converted to Christianity protects the preacher of this religion from the persecution of the Druids”, the participants in the movement united the indignation of the obsolete canons of art education.
In an effort to revive art, they focused on devotion to truth and sought serious, genuine ideas for expression. They ignored the established rules, studied nature and tried to portray events as they really were, and not in the spirit of academic traditions. This approach was formed under the influence of the painting of the Early Renaissance, to Rafael Raffaello Santi and Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti.
At the beginning of his career, the young artist was harshly criticized. But the moral maturity of works and commitment to Christian values helped him gain authority among the Victorian public. The artist liked to write on a canvas, a primed pace. He worked as sable brushes, mixing varnish in oil paints - this gave the flowers a special juiciness. The painting “Goat of Scape”, the first version, the Bible was an inexhaustible source of plots for the painter.
Wanting with his own eyes to see the places described in the Old Testament, and “make the history and teachings of Jesus Christ more tangible, in the middle of X he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There, the artist worked on the famous "scapegoat", painted landscapes and made sketches from nature. The painting “Goat of Scape”, the second version, in February, Hunt returned to his homeland, hoping for an ambulance with the model Annie Miller.
However, the engagement was torn. In M, William married Fanny in - we can see her in the picture “Isabella and a pot with a basil”, written based on the poem by John Kitsa John Keats. The painting "Isabella and a pot with a basil", in the year Fanny died. The widower entrusted the newborn son with his own martyr - young Edith. Much later, in M, she will become the second wife of the artist.
In those days, marriage with a relative of the deceased wife was considered illegal. A grandiose scandal followed, relations with Thomas Woulner, married to one of the sisters in - Alice, have spoiled, for now, in M, the artist crushed by grief again goes to the Middle East and even builds a house in Jerusalem. Local landscapes fascinate him. Here, William works on the picturesque embodiments of biblical plots and is tired of working on sketches for the painting “The Shadow of Death”, sketching the landscapes of Nazareth.
The painting "Shadow of Death", at the end of his life, the painter is practically blind. William Hunt died on September 7th and was buried in London, in the Cathedral of St. Paul, next to his beloved brainchild - a painting “Svetoch of the World” in full size. The master himself made frames for his work and decorated them in accordance with the plot. The best works: “hired shepherd” - bright colors almost physically convey the feeling of a sultry summer day.
Each detail is registered with unprecedented thoroughness. The model is Annie Miller, who was engaged to Hunt. A stormy door without a handle symbolizes a closed heart.
You can only open it from the inside. One shows an animal with snow -white wool, on the other with black.