Lot Essay
Hunt married Edith Waugh in 1875, and, after the birth of their daughter Gladys on 20 September 1876, began to execute a series of drawings of his family. A sketchbook of silverpoint studies, dating from about 1878 (private collection), includes on (folio 8) of Edith with her head at an angle identical to that of the figure of the Madonna in the present drawing, and another (folio 3) of the infant Gladys peering at a roundel which is related to the alto-relief.
The subject of the Madonna and Child seems to have been very important to Hunt after the death of his first wife in Florence in 1866. At that period he purchased many representations on the theme, and the frame of the relief in lot 351 is certainly indebted to a work in his own collection, then given to Andrea della Robbia (repr. Diana Holmon-Hunt, 'The Holman Hunt Collection, A Personal Recollection', in Leslie Parris ed.), Raphaelite Papers, 1984, p. 216, pl. 97).
The present sketch is related to 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin': design from my daughter (repr. W. Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 2nd ed., 1913, II, p. 268). In both drawings the way in which Gladys's hand touches the baby in the relief suggests that her brother Hilary Holman Hunt, born on 6 May 1879, is the model for the infant sitting on his mother's knee. In terms of line lot 351 is close to another sketch of the artist's family, executed in September 1879 (repr. Hunt, op. cit., II, p. 284) and our drawing also dates from about this year.
We are grateful to Dr Judith Bronkhurst for preparing this catalogue entry
The subject of the Madonna and Child seems to have been very important to Hunt after the death of his first wife in Florence in 1866. At that period he purchased many representations on the theme, and the frame of the relief in lot 351 is certainly indebted to a work in his own collection, then given to Andrea della Robbia (repr. Diana Holmon-Hunt, 'The Holman Hunt Collection, A Personal Recollection', in Leslie Parris ed.), Raphaelite Papers, 1984, p. 216, pl. 97).
The present sketch is related to 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin': design from my daughter (repr. W. Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 2nd ed., 1913, II, p. 268). In both drawings the way in which Gladys's hand touches the baby in the relief suggests that her brother Hilary Holman Hunt, born on 6 May 1879, is the model for the infant sitting on his mother's knee. In terms of line lot 351 is close to another sketch of the artist's family, executed in September 1879 (repr. Hunt, op. cit., II, p. 284) and our drawing also dates from about this year.
We are grateful to Dr Judith Bronkhurst for preparing this catalogue entry