The Light of the World (painting)

Painting by William Holman Hunt

The Light of the World (Keble College version)

The Light of the World (1851–1854) is an allegorical painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, illustrating Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me". According to Hunt: "I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be divine command, and not simply a good subject."[1] The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing "the obstinately shut mind".[2] The painting was considered by many to be the most important and culturally influential rendering of Christ of its time.[3]

The Light of the World (Manchester version)

## Composition

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Many speculated about the identity of the model. In January 1898, Edward Clodd sent Hunt a copy of a newspaper article on the subject, asking for Hunt's verification. Hunt had earlier told Clodd

> … of my having used a cast from a clay model made by me, with a variety of male sitters, my father, Millais, John Capper and, in person, furtively from Carlyle, also from many departed heroes in effigy – the best I could get serving as my model for different parts of the head …

Hunt replied that "What [the author of the article] says about Miss Christina Rossetti sitting for the head . . . is true," which Rossetti did after Hunt felt he had "secured the male character in the head."[4]

The Light of the World (St Paul's Cathedral version)

## Versions

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The original is variously said to have been painted at night in a makeshift hut at Worcester Park Farm in Surrey, and in the garden of the Oxford University Press,[5] while it is suggested that Hunt found the dawn light he needed outside Bethlehem on one of his visits to the Holy Land.[6] In oil on canvas, it was begun around 1849 or 1850[6] and completed in 1854. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854 and is now in the side chapel at Keble College, Oxford.[7][8] The painting was donated to the college by Martha Combe, the widow of Thomas Combe, Printer to the University of Oxford, Tractarian, and a patron of the Pre-Raphaelites, in the year following his death in 1872,[5] on the understanding that it would hang in the chapel (constructed 1873-1876), but the building's architect William Butterfield was opposed to that and made no provision in his design. When the college library opened in 1878 it was placed there, and was moved to its present position only after the construction of the side chapel to accommodate it, in 1892–1895, by another architect, J. T. Micklethwaite.[9]

A second, smaller version of the work, painted by Hunt between 1851 and 1856, is on display at Manchester City Art Gallery, England, which purchased it in 1912.[10] There are small differences between that and the first version, such as the angle of the gaze, and the drape of the corner of the red cloak.

The fact that, at the time, Keble College charged a fee to view the picture,[5] persuaded Hunt to paint a larger, life-sized, version toward the end of his life. He began it in about 1900 and finished in 1904. Shipowner and social reformer, Charles Booth, purchased the work and it was hung in St Paul's Cathedral, London. It was dedicated there in 1908, following a 1905-1907 world tour, during which the picture drew large crowds.[11] It was claimed that four-fifths of Australia's population viewed it.[12] Due to Hunt's increasing infirmity and glaucoma, he was assisted in the completion of this version by English painter Edward Robert Hughes (who also assisted with Hunt's version of The Lady of Shalott). The third version diverges more from the original than the second one.

## Reception

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The painting gave rise to much popular devotion in the late Victorian period and inspired several musical works, including Arthur Sullivan's 1873 oratorio The Light of the World.[3] Engraved reproductions were widely hung in nurseries, schools and church buildings.[12]

## References

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1. ^ "William Holman Hunt Artworks". The Art Story. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
2. ^ Hunt, W. H. (1905). Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Vol. I. London: Macmillan. p. 350.
3. ^ a b Landow, George P. (December 2001). "The Light of the World". Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 14 September 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
4. ^ Amor, Anne Clark (1989). William Holman Hunt: The True Pre-Raphaelite. London: Constable. pp. 255–256.
5. ^ a b c Hibbert, Christopher, ed. (1988). The Encyclopædia of Oxford. London: Macmillan. pp. 20, 197, 208–9. ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
6. ^ a b "Chapel History and Treasures". Keble College. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
7. ^ Hunt 1905, pp. 299–300.
8. ^ Dalton, Nick (21 August 2012). Frommer's France and the Best of Wales. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 349–. ISBN 978-1-118-33137-8. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
9. ^ "Inside the Chapel". Keble College. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
10. ^ "The Light of the World". Art UK. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
11. ^ "The Light of the World". St Paul's Cathedral. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
12. ^ a b Fulford, Robert (24 December 2007). "The Light fantastic: Loved but neglected painting of Jesus became a touchstone of mass culture". National Post. Retrieved 3 September 2016.

## Further reading

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* Maas, Jeremy (1984). Holman Hunt and the Light of the World. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-85967-683-0.

## External links

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* Revelation 3:20
* Victorian Web information

* v
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William Holman Hunt

Paintings|

* Rienzi (1849)
* A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids (1849–1850)
* Claudio and Isabella (1850)
* The Hireling Shepherd (1851)
* Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (1851)
* Our English Coasts (1852)
* The Awakening Conscience (1853)
* The Scapegoat (1854–1855; 1854–1856)
* The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860)
* London Bridge on the Night of the Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales (1864)
* Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1868)
* The Shadow of Death (1873)
* The Miracle of the Holy Fire (1892–1899)
* The Lady of Shalott (c. 1888–1905)

Painting series|

* The Light of the World (1849–1854; 1851–1856; 1900–1904)

Related|

* Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
* The Germ
* Hogarth Club
* Diana Holman-Hunt (granddaughter)
* The Love School (1975 miniseries)
* Desperate Romantics (2009 miniseries)

* v
* t
* e

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (paintings)

* William Holman Hunt
* John Everett Millais
* Dante Gabriel Rossetti
* James Collinson
* William Michael Rossetti
* Frederic George Stephens
* Thomas Woolner

Associated
artists and
figures

* Lawrence Alma-Tadema
* George Price Boyce
* John Brett
* Ford Madox Brown
* Lucy Madox Brown
* Richard Burchett
* Edward Burne-Jones
* Georgiana Burne-Jones
* James Campbell
* John Collier
* Charles Allston Collins
* Frank Cadogan Cowper
* Evelyn De Morgan
* Walter Deverell
* Henry Treffry Dunn
* William Dyce
* Henry Holiday
* Arthur Hughes
* Edward Robert Hughes
* Frederic Leighton
* Robert Braithwaite Martineau
* Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford
* William Morris
* Alexander Munro
* Joseph Noel Paton
* Valentine Cameron Prinsep
* Christina Rossetti
* John Ruskin
* Emma Sandys
* Frederick Sandys
* Thomas Seddon
* Elizabeth Siddal
* James Smetham
* Rebecca Solomon
* Simeon Solomon
* John Roddam Spencer Stanhope
* Marie Spartali Stillman
* John Melhuish Strudwick
* Algernon Charles Swinburne
* Henry Wallis
* John William Waterhouse
* William James Webbe
* William Lindsay Windus

Some
well-known
works
(period and
post-period)

* Ophelia
* Christ in the House of His Parents
* A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids
* Ecce Ancilla Domini
* Mariana
* The Light of the World
* Our English Coasts ('Strayed Sheep')
* The Scapegoat
* Paolo and Francesca da Rimini
* The Last of England
* Work
* The Awakening Conscience
* The Hireling Shepherd
* April Love
* Found
* Autumn Leaves
* Bocca Baciata
* Oxford Union murals
* Lady Lilith
* Roman Widow
* Mary Magdalene
* The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple
* Morgan le Fay
* Beata Beatrix
* The Shadow of Death
* Proserpine
* A Vision of Fiammetta
* Pygmalion and the Image series
* The Beloved
* Cymon and Iphigenia
* King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
* The Day Dream
* The Golden Stairs
* Dante and Beatrice
* Love's Messenger
* The Magic Circle
* The Legend of Briar Rose
* The Lady of Shalott (Waterhouse)
* The Roses of Heliogabalus
* Lilith
* Eos
* Flaming June
* Hope
* Hylas and the Nymphs
* Lady Godiva
* The Love Potion
* The Lady of Shalott (Hunt)
* I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott

Models|

* Elizabeth Siddal
* Fanny Cornforth
* Effie Gray
* Sophie Gray
* Annie Miller
* Jane Morris
* Marie Spartali Stillman
* Alexa Wilding
* Maria Zambaco
* Dorothy Dene
* Fanny Eaton
* Ruth Herbert

Related|

* The Germ
* Hogarth Club
* Morris & Co.
* Rossetti and His Circle (1922 book)
* Dante's Inferno (1967 film)
* The Love School (1975 series)
* Desperate Romantics (2009 series)
* Effie Gray (2014 film)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Israel

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*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa