William Holman Hunt OM (1827 - 1910)

Born 2 Apr 1827 in London, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Fanny (Waugh) Holman Hunt — married 28 Dec 1865 in Paddington, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Marian Edith (Waugh) Holman Hunt — married 14 Nov 1873 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Descendants

Died 7 Sep 1910 at age 83 in Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

William was an English Painter and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

William Hunt OM was born in Middlesex, England.

William Hunt OM is Notable.

William Holman Hunt was born 2 April 1827 in London and was christened 10 June at St Giles Cripplegate^[1]. He was the son of William Hunt and his wife Sarah Hobman. The Holman came about via a misspelling in the baptismal register.

In the first English Census in 1841^[2], the Hunt family were living at 44 New Compton Street in the parish of St Giles-in-the-fields. With William, then 14, were his parents and his three younger siblings, Henry, Eliza and Fanny. Presumably they were all living in one room as there are at least five other families at the same address. However in Charles Booth's poverty maps, forty years later, the area is marked as 'Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings'^[3]. His father is listed as a 'Paper Stainer', a maker of wallpaper.

At the age of sixteen he tried to enter the Royal Academy School but was rejected. The following year, 1844, he was accepted and began his formal training^[4]. In 1848, together with John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a rebellion against the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Academy and English painting. Millais and Holman Hunt both exhibited at the Academy in the summer of 1849 in the new style and added PRB to their signatures. Holman Hunt exhibited a scene from a novel by Bulwer Lytton, Rienzi vowing Justice. The painting has the bright colours and intense detail of the new movement.

Rienzi vowing Justice 1849

Unlike many of his fellow artists Holman Hunt was deeply spiritual and Christian and a considerable number of his paintings are of biblical scenes. In 1850 he travelled to the Holy Land for the first of many visits. On his return he began to work on what would become his most famous painting, The Light of the World. It is perhaps the quintessential Pre-Raphaelite painting and became the most popular religious image of the 19th Century. He painted three versions of it during his life, the final one being finished in 1900. This last version, after a world tour, was hung in St Paul's Cathedral in London.

The Light of the World - (Keble College version)

At the same time he completed Our English Coasts, which is almost photographic in its detail. With his reputation now established he spent 1853 to 1855 back in Jerusalem. Here he began work on two of his greatest masterpieces: The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple and The Scapegoat.

The Scapegoat 1854-6

William's love life was far from standard. In 1851 he met an illiterate barmaid in a public house in Chelsea. Annie Miller was just 16 and for the next twelve years she was to fascinate pretty much every man who met her. William was smitten and asked her to sit for him. The resulting picture, The Awakening Conscience, was exhibited in 1853 to both acclaim (for the painting skill) and criticism (for the subject matter). Before he set out for Jerusalem he arranged for her to be educated with a view to marrying her. He also allowed her to sit for Millais and Rossetti, which she did frequently. On his return in early 1856 he was jealous at the number of her admirers. During his next visit east in 1859 he was told that Annie had been out with Lord Ranelagh and Holman Hunt broke of the engagement. Annie married the viscount's cousin a couple of years later^[5].

On 28 December 1865^[6], he married Fanny Waugh in Kensington, London. He was 38, she was 32 and the sister of Alice, the wife of his friend and fellow Pre-Raphaelite, Thomas Woolner.

in August 1866, despite Fanny being pregnant, they left England for the Holy Land but a cholera outbreak forced them to stop temporarily in Florence. There, soon after arriving, Fanny gave birth to a son, Cyril. She never recovered her strength and died just eight days short of their first wedding anniversary.

William went on to Jerusalem but later returned to England. Cyril went to live with Fanny's family. Amongst that family was Edith, Fanny's youngest sister. Edith had been in love with William since he painted her portrait in 1866.

Edith and William decided to marry. However, under English law at that time, one could not marry the sister of one's deceased wife. William and Edith simply moved to the continent and were married in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on 14 November 1873. The marriage caused some scandal in England and led to a permanent rift between William and Thomas Woolner.

William and Edith had 2 children together, Gladys and Hilary. Gladys was born in the house William had built in Jerusalem on the Street of the Prophets^[7]. Hilary was born back in Kensington as the family moved back and forth between England and the Holy Land.

in 1881^[8], the entire family were living in 2 Warwick Gardens in Brompton.

In 1891^[9], they were living in Draycott Lodge on the Kings Road in Fulham. Cyril had by then moved away but Gladys and Hilary were still at home.

By the middle 1890s, William's eyesight was not what it once was and in his late paintings much of the detail work was done by Edward Robert Hughes. The Lady of Shalott is a great example of this late period work.

In 1901^[10], they were still in Draycott Lodge. Their children had moved out but Cyril, by then a tea planter, was visiting.

Soon after, in 1903, they bought a large house in Kensington at 18 Melbury Road. The house has a blue plaque commemorating him on it^[11].

In 1905, Edward VII made him a member of his newly created Order of Merit.

William died in 1910, at home in Kensington and was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral^[12], not far from his famous painting.

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3MY-Q5B : 21 March 2020), William Holman Hunt, 1827.
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1841," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQJW-ND1 : 22 May 2019), William Hunt in household of Elizabeth Keen, St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom; from "1841 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
3. ↑ Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903) by Charles Booth https://booth.lse.ac.uk/map/17/-0.1275/51.5144/100/0
4. ↑ http://www.williamholmanhunt.org/biography/
5. ↑ https://archive.vn/20091025181938/http://www.geocities.com/englishresources/Paintings/Hunt/Annie.html#selection-285.52-285.67
6. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DW7-Q8P : 13 December 2014), Fanny Waugh, 1865; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1865, quarter 4, vol. 1A, p. 231, Kensington, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
7. ↑ William Holman Hunt's House and Studio in Jerusalem http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/whh/plates/house.html
8. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27S-B54B : 10 December 2017), Marion E Hunt in household of William Hol Hunt, Kensington, London,Middlesex, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 15, Piece/Folio 24/51, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,774,318.
9. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QQ22-K3Z : 25 November 2020), Marion E Holman Hunt in household of William H Hunt, Fulham, London, England, United Kingdom; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, London county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
10. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X94N-1YS : 20 May 2019), Marion E Hunt in household of William Holman Hunt, Fulham, London, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing South Fulham subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
11. ↑ https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/hunt-william-holman/
12. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 19 November 2020), memorial page for William Holman Hunt (2 Apr 1827–7 Sep 1910), Find a Grave Memorial no. 11800, citing Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, City of London, Greater London, England ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

See also:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holman_Hunt
• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell