William Holman Hunt

Pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) co-founded one of the most influential art movements in Victorian Britain. Born to a Cheapside warehouse manager, he was raised as a devout Christian, studying the Bible intensely from childhood. After working as a clerk from age 12, he finally gained admission to the Royal Academy schools in 1844, where he met John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Together in 1848, they formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, rejecting academic conventions in favor of vivid color, minute detail, and serious subject matter.

Hunt alone remained faithful to Pre-Raphaelite principles throughout his career. He made three trips to the Holy Land to paint biblical scenes with authentic local detail. The Scapegoat (1854-56), painted beside the Dead Sea, shows a goat bearing Israel's sins in a desolate salt landscape. The Light of the World (1851-53) depicts Christ knocking at an overgrown door symbolizing the human soul. Hunt painted it at night in an unheated shelter, causing permanent damage to his health. Three versions exist: the original at Keble College Oxford, a smaller version in Manchester, and a larger replica (1900-04) at St Paul's Cathedral. The Awakening Conscience (1853) shocked audiences with its moral drama of a kept woman's spiritual awakening. Hunt received the Order of Merit in 1905 and was buried at St Paul's Cathedral in 1910. Major works hang at Tate Britain and the Manchester Art Gallery.