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(b London, 2 Apr. 1827; d London, 7 Sept. 1910). English painter, co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. He was the only member of the Brotherhood who throughout his entire career remained faithful to Pre-Raphaelite aims, which he summarized as finding serious and genuine ideas to express, direct study from nature in disregard of all arbitrary rules, and envisaging events as they must have happened rather than in accordance with artistic conventions. Hunt's work was remarkable for its minute precision, its accumulation of incident, and its didactic emphasis on moral or social symbolism, and he made three visits to the Middle East so he could paint biblical scenes with accurate local detail. One of the most famous paintings that resulted from his fanatical devotion to authenticity is The Scapegoat (1854–5, Lady Lever AG, Port Sunlight), showing the outcast animal on the shore of the Dead Sea.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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