Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 130. William Holman Hunt London 1827 – 1910 London The Thames at Chelsea, Evening, 1853 Painting directly from nature was a guiding principle of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which William Holman Hunt was a founding member. Among its stated aims, we find: “1, To have genuine ideas to express; 2, to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them […]”.1 Much of Holman Hunt’s work is characterised by a high level of detail, meticulous brushwork and rich colouring, which makes this nocturnal view of the Thames, with its loose handling of paint and austere palette, all the more intriguing. The murky waters of the river take up over half of the composition, and the reflection of light on its surface is the main subject of the painting. Though the sky appears heavy with smog, moonlight shines through and casts horizontal reflections on the water, contrasting with the long, vertical strips created by the illuminated buildings on the other side of the bank. Holman Hunt lived in Chelsea from 1850 until his departure for the Holy Land in January 1854. An inscription on the back of this study indicates that it was painted from a window in Cheyne Walk in 1853, and presented by the artist to his friend and colleague John Everett Millais (1829–1896). 1William Michael Rossetti (ed.), Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters, with a Memoir, London, 1895, I, p. 135.
Painting directly from nature was a guiding principle of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which William Holman Hunt was a founding member. Among its stated aims, we find: “1, To have genuine ideas to express; 2, to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them […]”.1 Much of Holman Hunt’s work is characterised by a high level of detail, meticulous brushwork and rich colouring, which makes this nocturnal view of the Thames, with its loose handling of paint and austere palette, all the more intriguing. The murky waters of the river take up over half of the composition, and the reflection of light on its surface is the main subject of the painting. Though the sky appears heavy with smog, moonlight shines through and casts horizontal reflections on the water, contrasting with the long, vertical strips created by the illuminated buildings on the other side of the bank. Holman Hunt lived in Chelsea from 1850 until his departure for the Holy Land in January 1854. An inscription on the back of this study indicates that it was painted from a window in Cheyne Walk in 1853, and presented by the artist to his friend and colleague John Everett Millais (1829–1896). 1William Michael Rossetti (ed.), Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters, with a Memoir, London, 1895, I, p. 135.