William Holman Hunt was born in 1827, the son of a warehouse manager who did not support his son's decision to pursue an artistic career. Joining the work force as a clerk at the age of twelve, Hunt's strong work ethic kept him employed until 1844 when he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools againste strong opposition of his family. There he met fellow student John Everett Millais which began a significant friendship that would effect the direction of Holman Hunt's work. In 1847 Holman Hunt read John Ruskin's Modern Painters and became further convinced that art was in need of renewal, believing the standards which would become the part of the creed of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Holman Hunt felt art should return to religious and moral ideals and these beliefs became central in his work. Later, in 1851 when Ruskin would be asked to defend the works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he would praise Holman Hunt's work particularly and compare it to Durer.
In 1848 he met Dante Gabriel Rossetti who had seen Hunt's Royal Academy painting The Eve of St Agnes and been enthused by the artist choosing a subject from Keats. In September of the same year Hunt, Rossetti, John Everett Millais, sculptor Thomas Woolner, Frederick George Stephens, James Collinson and Michael Rossetti formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Holman Hunt's first exhibit with the PRB monogram painting at the Royal Academy was Rienzi in 1849.
Hunt came to be considered the keenest adherent to the ideals of the group and went to lengths to insure accuracy in his paintings. He would spend months painting outdoors at night by candle and lantern light for Light of the World, sheep were brought into his studio for other works, and for The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple the artist needed Jewish models but the local rabbi banned those he asked from sitting. Finally Holman Hunt convinced the rabbi to allow people to pose for him by omitting to inform them that they were posing for a Christian painting. Once Holman Hunt boiled down a horse carcass in his garden in order to use the skeleton for a prop.
Hunt had a strong religious nature, earning him the nickname 'The High Priest' among his fellow Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood members. This nature gave the artist a desire to paint biblical subjects and coupled with his wish to have accurate archaeological details, he traveled to the Holy Land and Egypt in 1854. Even with the war in the Crimea, Hunt was prompted by his faith and left on his trip in spite of discouragement from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood members. Millais had attempted to dissuaded his friend but eventually saw Hunt off at the station where he gave Hunt a signet ring as a token of their friendship. Hunt would wear the ring until his death.
In 1865 William Holman Hunt married Fanny Waugh. In 1866 the couple left to visit the Holy Land again however they only reached as far as Florence where Fanny gave birth to a son, Cyril, but became a victim of military fever and died in December of that year. Almost ten years after the death of Fanny, Hunt married her sister Edith, but the marriage was illegal in Britain under the deceased sister act. This is thought to be why Hunt later avoided art world and also the Royal Academy where he held his last exhibit in 1874. Holman Hunt would later return to Jerusalem on his own and reside in Florence.
Most of Holman Hunt's paintings were done with painstaking attention to detail and took years to complete. He was renowned for his perfect eyesight from which reputation of being meticulous in his attention to detail and clarity of line and color is credited, but by 1899 his eyesight was failing though he continued to paint, relying on the help of studio assistants. In 1905 he was awarded the Order of Merit.
