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Toronto — The Art Gallery of Ontario
will offer visitors a rare glimpse into the life and work of one
of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century when Sin
and Salvation: Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision
opens on Valentine’s Day. William Holman Hunt’s works explored
the most critical social and political issues of his day – such
as the role of women in society, gender relations and the crisis
of faith – changing the course of Victorian art.
Born in 1827 in London, England, Hunt attended the Royal Academy
in 1844 where he met John Everett Millais and later Dante
Gabriel Rossetti. In 1848 these three artists formed the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which broke with academic tradition
and developed a distinctive medievalizing style characterized by
bright colours and hyperrealism.
Hunt enjoyed great success early in his career. In 1853, he
underwent a religious conversion while painting his most famous
work The Light of the World. Shortly thereafter, he
embarked on his first journey to the Middle East in order to
imbue his biblical scenes with archaeological accuracy. Hunt
would return to the Middle East several times, spending a total
of seven years in the region. One version of Hunt’s The Light
of the World travelled around the British Empire in 1905,
stopping in Toronto, and another was shown at the Canadian
National Exhibition in 1935. The image inspired stained glass
windows in churches throughout Ontario.
"I am fascinated by the way Hunt explores moments of insight or
revelation that change the lives of individuals or the course of
human history, and his combination of exquisite workmanship with
bizarre subject matter and psychologically penetrating content.
The issues he addresses are as relevant today as they were in
his own day," says curator Dr. Katharine Lochnan, Deputy
Director of Research and the R. Fraser Elliott Curator of Prints
and Drawings at the AGO.
Hunt developed close ties with several prominent figures in
Canada, notably Sir Edmund Walker, founding president of the Art
Museum of Toronto (now the AGO); Charles Trick Currelly, the
first director of archaeology at the Royal Ontario Museum; and
Henry Wentworth Monk, a leader in the non-Jewish Zionist
movement, whose portrait by Hunt is included in the exhibition.
Sin and Salvation: Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision
features more than 60 of Hunt’s most famous paintings, including
The Awakening Conscience, The Light of the World,
Isabella and the Pot of Basil and The Finding of the
Saviour in the Temple. The exhibition also features works by
other leading Pre-Raphaelites such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
John Everett Millais and their associates Arthur Hughes and Ford
Madox Brown, as well as textiles used in Hunt’s studio from the
Royal Ontario Museum, and documents from the Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Library and the Robertson Davies Library in Massey College
at the University of Toronto.
The works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are among the most
popular in British museums and are rarely lent. Major lenders to
this landmark exhibition include Tate Britain, the Birmingham
Museums and Art Gallery, and the Manchester Art Gallery. North
American lenders include the National Gallery of Canada, the
Cleveland Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated book, which
features insightful essays by interdisciplinary specialists in
Britain, the United States, New Zealand and Canada, and is
co-edited by Katharine Lochnan and Carol Jacobi, Leverhulme
Fellow, National Portrait Gallery in London.
The AGO is the only Canadian venue for this international
exhibition conceived and organized by Katharine Lochnan. The
exhibition opened last October in England at the Manchester Art
Gallery, and will be seen at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
from June 13 to September 6, 2009.
This exhibition is on view until May 10, and is included
with admission to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Sin and Salvation: Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision
is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario in association with
the Manchester Art Gallery.
The exhibition is supported by the Department of Canadian
Heritage through the Canada Travelling Exhibitions
Indemnification Program.
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