Stephens praises the painting as one which "embodied a genuine thought, in glowing and intense colours, victorious rendering of nature in every detail, solid and manly execution unflinchingly carried out, with the representation of sunlight effect, which was an entirely new thing in art. For the painter first put into practice, in an historical picture, based upon his own observations, the scientific elucidation of that peculiar effect which, having been hinted at by Leonardo da Vinci . . . was partly explained by Newton, and fully developed by Davy and Brewster. He was absolutely the first figure-painter who gave the true colour to sun-shadows, made them partake of the tint of the object on which they were cast, and deepened such shadows to pure blue where he found them to be so, painted trees like trees, and far-off hedgerows standing clearly in pure summer air" (William Holman Hunt and His Works, A Memoir of the Artist's Life, with a Description of His Pictures (London, 1860), pp.19-20). See also Allen Staley,The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape (Oxford, 1973), 24, and Macmillan, 194-95.
Last modified 3 August 2015