The Father's Leave-taking by William Holman Hunt. Dated 1879 in the plate. Source: Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, II, 333. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “This print portrays Hunt’s second wife, Edith, holding their daughter Gladys. The pose recalls a Madonna of Humility, and the intense realism is characteristically endowed with symbolic resonance—after losing his first wife to sudden illness the artist was deeply aware of life’s fragility. The contrast between the grand classical column and domestic interior glimpsed through a doorway also echoes Renaissance nativities.”
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Hunt, William Holman. Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1905.
Last modified 17 January 2022