Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/348

 is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. He was twice painted by Sir William Richmond; for the first time in 1878, and for the second in 1900. The earlier picture belongs to Sir William Richmond; the latter was presented to Holman Hunt by his friends, with an address written by (Sir) Leslie Stephen. Both portraits are reproduced in photogravure in Hunt's 'Pre-Raphaelitism' (1905).

Holman Hunt's lifelong adherence to Pre-Raphaelite principles and his strong religious convictions give him a unique place in the history of English art. The determined realism with which he treats the scenes of New Testament history has recalled to many critics the genius of Bunyan. In Ruskin's view, the New Testament 'became' to Holman Hunt, after he quitted worldly subjects, 'what it was to an old Puritan or an old Catholic of true blood' — 'the only Reality.' Holman Hunt's minute search after what he believed to be truth did not permit him to paint many pictures. But all show the same conscientious fidelity to fact, and bright,' if not always harmonious, colouring. JEsthetic unity is too often sacrificed to excess of detail, producing occasionally the crudest effects. His genius was essentially Germanic, finding expression not in the intrinsic powers of the material in which he worked, but in the forceful detail of his representations. He ignored the virtues of concentration and subordination, and endeavoured to say as much as he could on every subject he treated. Yet few artists can claim a more distinctive individuaUty or have made a bolder stand against the artistic conventions of their own day than Holman Hunt; whether those conventions were always for the worse is a different puestion.

 HUNTER, COLIN (1841–1904), sea-painter, born at Glasgow on 16 July 1841, was youngest child in the family of three sons and two daughters of John Hunter and his wife, Anne MacArthur. Owing to failing health the father gave up business in Glasgow about 1844, and removing to Helensburgh, opened a library and bookshop there, and became post-master. Colin Hunter was thus brought up on the coast. On leaving school he spent four years in a shipping-office in Glasgow, and soon made the acquaintance of William Black, the novelist, who became a lifelong friend. From early youth his bias towards art was strong. He devoted all his leisure to sketching from nature, and after a little study at the local school of art he at twenty abandoned business to become a landscape-painter. He practically taught himself to paint by working out of doors, frequently in the company of J. Milne Donald, the best-known painter in the west of Scotland, who encouraged him and gave him hints. From the first his work was vigorous, and, for its period, strong and rich in tone. A few months spent in Paris in the studio of M. Leon Bonnat at a later date left no obvious traces on his style.

Many of Hunter's earlier pictures appeared in the Royal Scottish Academy and the Glasgow Institute. For the most part they were closely studied and carefully painted scenes in the neighbourhood of Helensburgh, near the Trossachs or in Glenfalloch. Rustic figures were occasionally introduced. But towards 1870 he took seriously to painting the sea, and thenceforth, although frequently producing admirable inland landscapes, his finest, and certainly his most characteristic, work was inspired by the Firth of Clyde and Arran, or by the sea-fringed and fretted highlands and islands of the west.

Until 1870 he lived principally at Helensburgh, although from 1868 to 1872 he had a studio in Edinburgh. Meanwhile his work commenced to attract attention at the Royal Academy. He had first exhibited there in 1868. Four years later he went to London. After occupying studios in Langham Place and Carlton Hill, he removed in 1877 to Melbury Road, Kensington, where he built a fine house and studio. In 1873 the power and originahty of 'Trawlers waiting for Darkness' had evoked general admiration. His career was thenceforth one of almost unbroken success. His pictures formed for many years one of the features of the Academy exhibitions, where 