[In this passage from Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt's credits Morris & Co. with improving English taste but then qualifies that praise because it depended so heavily on Gothic Revival designs, which Hunt associated with the so-called "Early Christian" school of Overbeck and other German artists. (I based the decorated initial “A” on a tapesty by Burne-Jones. — George P. Landow.]
THE Franco-German war had brought many French artists to England, some of whom had returned to Paris, while others remained here. One evening at a small bachelors' gathering at Millais' studio, a foreigner, being told that I had just returned from Jerusalem, asked if I were Holman Hunt, the painter of "The Finding of Christ in the Temple," which he had lately seen in Mr. Charles Mathews' collection. He said that he had admired it and my principle of work so much that he had resolved some day to go to the East and paint on the same system. I then learnt that this artist was young "Tissot." [II, 312]
Bibliography
Hunt, William Holman. Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1905.
Last modified 26 October 2012