William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite School of artists which strove to create crisp, romantic, almost hyper-realistic artwork of fantastical themes. His early work, however, was defined by a sharply contrasting loose style of approach. This painting of Holman Hunt’s friend, F.G. Stevens is an excellent example of the artist’s early work. Here, we see a figure of a young man, painted in free, natural brushstrokes. We can, however, see the elements of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood beginning to develop in the romanticized facial features of the model.
F.G. Stevens was a frequent model for Holman Hunt and his friends. Stevens was also a painter, but later abandoned brushes for a pen and embarked on a successful career as a writer and critic. His influence, in fact, was one of the driving forces behind the acceptance of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England. This just goes to prove that when all of the different arts work together, something exceptional will always happen.
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