621 



HUNT, WILLIAM HOLMAN. 



HUNTER, JOHN. 



623 



and commemorate the bounties of nature as shown in the hedgerow 

 or the orchard, or even refused to stoop and admire what an art-critic 

 in high repute when Mr. Hunt commenced his career termed ' ditch 

 trumpery.' Like a thorough Londoner he scarce ever lets a season 

 pass without going into the fields to gather a ' bunch of May * (as he 

 always affectionately names the hawthorn-blossom), and never before 

 was the ' May' no exquisitely painted, as probably it never again will 

 be. But 'apple-blossoms,' 'plums,' 'grapes,' ' birds'-nests and eggs,' 

 primroses,' even 'mossy stones' have engaged equally careful if not 

 quite such frequent notice, and each in its turn has formed the subject 

 of a charming little picture. Belonging to a more exotic class are 

 ' grapes and quioces,' ' pine-apples,' and ' preserved ginger.' Then 

 again we have in-door themes, generally designated as 'interiors,' 

 whether of ' cottage ' or ' church,' ' wood-house ' or ' laboratory,' 

 kitchen or drawing-room; and all painted with the same rigorous 

 fidelity. If we add a few simple figure-pieces of a loftier aim, as 

 'Devotion,' ' The Oratory,' ' Asking a Blessing,' &c., and a few studies 

 of 'oak trees' and the like, we shall have pretty well exhausted the 

 titles of Mr. Hunt's almost unlimited number of pictures. Their 

 character is even more uniform than their subjects. No one lays 

 claim to be more than an accurate representation of a simple object ; 

 but whatever that object be, it is evident that nothing less than that 

 claim will bo admitted. Everything is painted with the most scrupu- 

 lous attention to truth of form, local colour, and natural light and 

 shadow, exactness and variety of texture, and statement of details ; 

 yet the painter-like breadth of effect is never disturbed. In his 

 peasant boys and girls, with the least possible exaggeration, there is 

 ever the most unmistakeable rusticity of character and expression, 

 and the idea is conveyed at once broadly and lucidly, yet not seldom 

 with a keen dry touch of genuine humour. His manipulative dex- 

 terity could only have been acquired in the comparatively intractable 

 materials he employs (though he makes free use of body colour) by 

 long years of incessant practice and diligent observation, followed out 

 with that thorough enjoyment in his occupation which all his works 

 evince ; but the spirit which animates them can only be ascribed to 

 native genius. 



* HUNT, WILLIAM HOLMAN. About 1849 or 1850, when 

 medievalism in theology and architecture was at its height, a few 

 painters, all very young and mostly fellow-students' in the Royal 

 Academy, became*converts to the prevalent fashion. They had before 

 them the example of the great restorers of historical and religious art 

 in Germany, who some forty years previously bad associated themselves 

 t iLTuther in the hope, by devoted apd exclusive study of the early 

 ' Christian ' painters Giotto, Francia, Masaccio, Perugino, &c, to 

 restore to art the religious depth, earnestness, truth and simplicity, 

 which had characterised it at the date of those masters, and which it 

 had, as they averred, lost under the dominion of their successors, 

 Raffaelle, Michel Angelo, Titian, and Correggio, who had drawn their 

 inspiration rather from classical and Pagan than Christian and 

 ecclesiastical sources. Adopting somewhat similar views, though only 

 adopting them in part, and in practice carrying them out on an infi- 

 nitely smaller scale, our young English painters resolved in like manner 

 to cast off the trammels of modern examples ; aud as a pledge of their 

 purpose, announced themselves to the world as the ' Pre-Kaphaelite 

 Brethren.' Among these from the first Mr. Hunt took a foremost 

 place, and while others of the fraternity have grown lukewarm, or 

 apostatised, he has hitherto contiuued stedfast in the faith. 



Prior to this period he had been for three or four years a contributor 

 to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, but his works had all been 

 of the usual character. His first picture, sent in 1846, was entitled 

 ' Hark ;' then followed ' A Scene from Woodstock,' another from Keats's 

 'Eve of St. Agnes;' and then, in 1849, one from Bulwer Lytton's 

 Bienzi.' 



In 1 850 appeared the first of the Pre-Raphaelite series, ' A Converted 

 British Family sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution 

 of the Druids;' in 1851 there followed a Pre-Raphaelite reading of 

 ' Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus ;' in 1852 the ' Hireling 

 Shepherd;' in 1853 ' Claudio and Isabella,' and a remarkable bit of 

 landscape, 'Our English Coasts;' in 1854 the 'Light of the World' 

 and the 'Awakened Conscience;' and in 1856 Mr. Hunt having in 

 the interval gone to the Holy Land with a view to make studies for 

 scriptural designs ' The Scapegoat.' 



That these pictures exhibited very considerable and every year 

 increatiug artistic power there could be no question. 13ut the applica- 

 tion of that power has called forth considerable difference of opinion. 

 Briefly it may be said, that Mr. Hunt's pictures are characterised not 

 by an imitation of the manner, or an attempt to catch the tone of 

 thought which distinguishes the works of Raphael's predecessors, but 

 (along with a little perhaps that might be regarded as approximating 

 to the mediaeval missal spirit) by a studious observation of the minutiae 

 of nature, and the most accurate and specific imitation of details. To 

 the ordinary observer however it appears a* though for the most part 

 this minute accuracy U obtained by the neglect of a broad or compre- 

 hensive survey. Each portion of the picture seems to be painted as 

 though the eye were engaged in making a picture of it alone. The 

 flower in the foreground, or the lichen on the distant wall, is painted 

 as though for the illustration of a botanical description, while the influ- 

 ence of intervening atmosphere, the proximity of more attractive 



object?, or the occurrence of some absorbing event is overlooked or 

 disregarded. A peculiarity in the skin of the model, the exact marking 

 of a piece of lace, is elaborately rendered, but mental expression appears 

 uncared for, and the countenance is a blauk. Thus it happens that 

 while from the extraordinary faithfulness of the details the painting 

 appears admirable when examined bit by bit, it becomes to au eye not 

 schooled in the new philosophy of art, painful when regarded as a 

 whole, from what would seem to be the absence of all comprehensive- 

 ness of grasp, largeness of conception, or breadth of thought. Still 

 this truthfulness iu detail, even when unaccompanied by uuity of view 

 and grandeur of composition, is, as a matter of executive art, better 

 than the vague conventional generalisations which had for some time 

 too commonly prevailed, and against which it was the perhaps over- 

 strained reaction ; and to Mr. Hunt and his compatriots is due the 

 credit of acting to a certain extent as pioneers in the truer way 

 towards which it may be hoped the English historical school of art is 

 approaching. 



But there is no sufficient reason why Mr. Hunt should not himself 

 be a leader in that better way. He is still very young little we 

 believe above thirty he possesses a very unusual amount of technical 

 knowledge and manipulative skill, and he has shown that he can 

 think and act for himself. To become a truly great painter however 

 in the sense in which the eminent men of old were great as painters 

 or poets it will be necessary for him to reflect more deeply on the 

 purpose and the limits of his art, to learn that he must appeal to the 

 common heart and common sense of mankind, rather than to a 

 sectional sentiment and an exoteric understanding, and gain compre- 

 hensiveness of vision by larger intercourse with nature and deeper 

 study of the human mind, as shown in the works of great poets and 

 imaginative writers, as well as painters. As ytt the grand mistake of 

 Mr. Hunt (as of the 1're-Raphaelites generally), apart from the 

 question of minute imitation, has been in his choice of subjects, and 

 the point of view from which he has regarded them. Too often he 

 selects a theme which might make au angel pause, and at once brings 

 it down to the commonest realities of life. The picture ia worked 

 out with the utmost practicable realism of style, and yet a profound 

 religious purpose is claimed for it. Thus Mr. Hunt's last two pictures 

 have beeu symbolical representations so his admirers say, and his 

 notes on the frames and iu the catalogues intimate of the second 

 person in the Trinity : a subject it is needless to observe which 

 every right-minded person will approach with the profouudest 

 reverence. The first of these pictures (1854) was entitled the ' Light 

 of the World," and in it the glorified Redeemer is depicted in the 

 gawdy vestments of a Romish priest, bedizened all over with gilt 

 embroidery and jewellery, and bearing in his hand a lantern of indu- 

 bitable modern manufacture. Again iu his last picture, ' The Scape- 

 goat" (1856), we have a representation of the Dead Sea and the hills 

 of Edom, painted on the spot, with a most minutely careful rendering 

 of the present appearance of every part of the scene, while occupying 

 the foreground is a large and ugly gout, which has beeu hunted 

 almost to death, and with all the symptoms of exhaustion faithfully 

 copied; and this is we are informed to be regarded as the symbolic 

 representation of Him who bore the sins of the world. It may 

 well be doubted whether any artistic skill or devotional treatment 

 could render such subjects other than repugnant to the feelings of 

 the larger portion of the painter's countrymen, or indeed whether 

 they are not altogether beyond the limits of the painter's art. 



HUNTER, JOHN, was born in 1723, at Long Calderwood, in 

 Kilbride, a village near Glasgow, where his father possessed a small 

 farm. Being the youngest of ten children, and his father dying when, 

 he was very young, hij education was almost entirely neglected. 

 His whole timo was devoted to the amusements of the country till ho 

 was seventeen years old, when he went to stay with his brother-iu- 

 law Mr. Buchanan, who was a cabinet-maker at Glasgow, and who 

 needed his assistance to extricate him from some pecuniary difficulties. 

 Hunter worked at the trade for nearly three years, and probably 

 thus acquired much of his manual dexterity. At the end of that 

 time, hearing of the great success which his brother [HuuTEii, 

 WILLIAM] had met with iu London as an anatomical and surgical 

 lecturer, he wrote to offer him his services as assistant iu the dissecting- 

 rooms. His offer was accepted, and in 1748 he commenced his 

 anatomical studies, in which he at once distinguished himself both 

 by his ardour and his skill. In 1749 Hunter became the pupil of 

 Cheselden, then surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, where he attended for 

 nearly two years, aud iu 1751 he went to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 and attended the practice of Mr. Pott. In 1753 he entered as a 

 gentleman-commoner at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, intending to practise 

 as a physician ; but he seems soon after to have given up this idea, 

 for in 1754 he entered as a surgeon's pupil at St. George's Ho-pital, 

 in the hope of becoming at some future time a surgeon to that insti- 

 tution. In the same year his brother made him his partner in the 

 school, and he delivered a part of each annual course of lectures till 

 1759, when his constant and severe labours iu anatomy, to which he 

 had lately added comparative anatomy and physiology, began to affect 

 his health so seriously that it became advisable for him to resort to 

 some milder climate. With this view he obtained an appointment as 

 staff-surgeon, and early in 1761 proceeded to Belle-Isle with the arma- 

 ment ordered to lay siege to that town. Ha afterwards went to the 



