Portrait head of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

Name: WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT, O.M., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1827-1910)
Brand: Portrait head of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
Price: 80000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 100,000

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WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT, O.M., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1827-1910)

Portrait head of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

Price Realised GBP 100,000

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT, O.M., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1827-1910)
Portrait head of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
signed with monogram and dated 'Dec^r. 1853' (lower left)
pencil on paper
10³⁄₈ x 8¹⁄₈ in. (26.3 x 20.6 cm.)

William Millais in 1882.
William Holman Hunt by 1896, and by descent to
Mrs M. Burt.
Mrs M. Joseph.
with Agnew's, London, 1970, where purchased by
The Lady Gibson, and by descent.

Magazine of Art, January 1896, i.
W.H. Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, London, 1905, I, p. 340.
O.J.W. von Schleinitz, William Holman Hunt, Leipzig, 1907, p. 34.
M. Bennett, William Holman Hunt: an exhibition arranged by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1969, p. 72.
J. Bronkhurst, William Holman Hunt: a Catalogue Raisonné, London and New Haven, 2006, p. 48, D76.

London, Leicester Galleries, Exhibition of the collected works of William Holman Hunt, O.M., D.C.L., October-November 1906, no. 43.
Manchester, Manchester Art Gallery, The collected works of William Holman Hunt, O.M., D.C.L., December 1906-January 1907, no. 75.
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Collective exhibition of the art of W. Holman Hunt, O.M., D.C.L, February-March 1907, no. 78.
London, National Gallery, Loan exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the 1860 period, April-June 1923, no. 221.
London, Royal Society of British Artists, The 200th exhibition, including a loan collection of Victorian and Edwardian draughtsmen, December 1943-January 1944, no. 612.
Birmingham, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, June-July 1947, no. 155.
London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition: British Portraits, November 1956-March 1957, no. 742. (label suggests 477)
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, and London, Victoria and Albert Museum, William Holman Hunt: an exhibition arranged by the Walker Art Gallery, March-June 1969, no. 128.
King's Lynn, Fermoy Art Gallery, The Pre-Raphaelites as Painters and Draughtsmen: A loan exhibition from two private collections, July-August 1971, no. 43.
London, Park Lane Hotel, The World of Watercolours loan exhibition, January 1990, unnumbered.

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Lot Essay

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood came together in 1848 in reaction against what they perceived as the unimaginative and artificial historical painting of the Royal Academy. The original Brotherhood was formed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais (1829-1896), and they invited James Collinson (1825-1881), the sculptor Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), and the critic William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) to join them. While others were associated with the movement in a wider sense, the original Brotherhood was a small group, and only remained intact for five years, going in different directions by 1854.

On 9 December 1853, Hunt wrote to Thomas Combe, ‘Millais has done a pencil drawing of me, which is pronounced to be very like’ (National Portrait Gallery, London). The present drawing dates from the same session, as the two young artists drew each other. Hunt had drawn Millais earlier that year, on 12 April, when Rossetti wrote to William Bell Scott, ‘the P.R.B. all made portraits of each other, which have been forwarded to [Thomas] Woolner. Millais did Stephens – Hunt did Millais and myself – Stephens did Millais – I did Hunt and William [Rossetti] – and William did the whole lot of us in his own striking style.’ The drawing Hunt made of Millais and gave to Woolner, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, has coloured chalk and a stiffer, more formal air, whereas the present drawing has the immediacy and intimacy of two friends drawing together for pleasure. Hunt, who is perhaps not best known for his portraiture now, was hugely prolific in the genre in 1852 and 1853, extensively recording friends and family before he set off for his journey to the Holy Land in 1854.