Lorenzo at his Desk in the Warehouse by William Holman Hunt. 1848-50. Pen and grey ink on paper, 8 ¾ x 13 ⅛ inches (22.2 x 33.3 cm). Collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris, accession no. RF 39617. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Hunt’s early drawing from the beginnings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood has all the qualities found in two of John Everett Millais’s pioneering works, one, like this, based on Keats’s “”Isabella and the Pot of Basil” (which Hunt painted in his later, mature style):
Left: Lorenzo and Isabella. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain. Right: Christ in the House of His Parents.. 1849-50. Oil on canvas, 34 x 55 inches; 864 x 1397 mm. Tate Britain, London. N03584. Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund and various subscribers 1921. Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. [Click on images to enlarge them.]
In the interests of pushing the limits of representation to awkwardness and even ugliness, Hunt, like Millais, depicts legs of both people and dogs at odd angles, crams the picture space with details, and creates an opening in the side of the picture in the manner of Early Netherlandish painters to create depth.
Last modified 11 January 2022