William Holman Hunt: Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1868

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career. He was always keen to maximize the popular appeal and public visibility of his works.

It was for his religious paintings that Hunt became famous, initially The Light of the World, now in the chapel at Keble College, Oxford, and a later version now in St Paul's Cathedral, London. In the mid-1850s Hunt travelled to the Holy Land in search of accurate topographical and ethnographical material for further religious works. There he painted The Scapegoat, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, and The Shadow of Death, along with many landscapes of the region.

Isabella and the Pot of Basil was completed in 1868 depicting a scene from John Keats's poem Isabella, or the Pot of Basil. It depicts the heroine Isabella caressing the basil pot in which she had buried the severed head of her murdered lover Lorenzo. The emphasis on sensuality, rich colours and elaborate decorative objects reflects the growing Aesthetic movement and similar features in the work of Hunt's Pre-Raphaelite associates John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

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HC-893: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm)