Annette Dixon: a Note to "Shadows Cast by the Light of the World"

George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University

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Annette Dixon, The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978, 21, comments both that the picture is signed and dated " 1. r. 9 W. H. H. 5 (monogram)" and "Inscribed on reverse, S. Luke XI, 5 with note concerning varnish dated 6 June, 1905." According to Dixon, the work was "painted after Hunt's last visit to Palestine in 1893. Bernard Hall, then Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, purchased the picture after spending a morning with Hunt at his studio in 1905." Since this version, which the painter dated 1895, appears to be the only one he painted of this subject and since he published a reproduction of it in 1893, one must conclude that Hunt's date represents the point at which he ceased revising a work essentially completed two years earlier. [Return to The Importunate Neighbour.]

Created 2001; last modified 3 August 2015