April 2, 1827

The biographical note below comes from an article on the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (April 2, 1827 to September 7, 1910) . 

                                                             

Hunt, [was]... the son of a warehouse manager. Throughout his life he was a devout Christian. He was also serious minded, & lacking in a sense of humour. Hunt joined the Royal Academy Schools in 1844, where he met Millais & Rossetti, &, in fact brought them together. In 1854 Hunt decided to visit the Holy Land, to see for himself the genuine background for the religious pictures he intended to paint. The first tangible results of this journey were two paintings, “The Scapegoat,’ & ( ‘ The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple,’ which was exhibited nationally to great acclaim in 1860, & sold for the sum of 5,500 guineas, Hunt was advised on the price by Charles Dickens.) This sale, which included the copyright established the painter both financially, & artisticly. Hunt’s famous picture ‘The Light of the World,’ was one of the greatest Christian images of the 19th & early 20th centuries. Hunt worked at night on this picture, in an unheated shelter in a wood near Ewell in Surrey. ... In his last years Hunt became the patriach of Victorian painting. He was awarded the Order of Merit by King Edward VII in 1905. Hunt married firstly Fanny Waugh, & after her death in childbirth her younger sister Edith. He was also a far more attractive personality than is generally supposed, with a wide range of interests, which included horse racing & boxing. He died in 1910.

Pre-Raphaelitism is an abstractly interesting response to modernity. Rather than intellectually confront the issues raised by the success of modern science, these artists chose to immerse themselves in a former historical period. The poor quality of much of this art perhaps reflects this lack of intellectual rigor.  In its time the art was well received, And I certainly cannot fault Hunt's study below, titled "study of a sleeping cat."