“Pre-Raphaelite painter. Born in London, son of warehouse manager. Against the wishes of his family, studied painting under Henry Rogers, a portrait painter, and copied at the National Gallery and British Museum. Entered Royal Academy School in 1844 and met Millais (q.v.) who became his greatest friend. Later met Rossetti (q.v.) and through him Madox brown (q.v.). In 1848-49, Hunt, Millais and Rossetti, together with W.M. Rossetti, James Collinson (q.v.), F.G. Stephens and Thomas Woolner, formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In a revolt against the Academy and its teaching, they aimed to paint nature with complete fidelity and noble ideas. During the following years Hunt painted some of his best-known works. In 1854 he visited the Holy Land, where he painted ‘The Scapegoat’. Visited the Middle East again in 1869 and 1873 to find the exact historical and archaeological backgrounds for his religious pictures. Of all the Pre-Raphaelites, Hunt was the only one who remained faithful to its original principles. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1846 to 1874, Old Watercolour Society from 1869 to 1903, and at the Grosvenor Gallery and New Gallery. Hunt’s large pictures tend to be over-elaborate and crowded with detail, but he was also a masterly watercolourist. In 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit. Buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

(Wood, Christopher. The Dictionary of Victorian Painters.)