Description
William Holman Hunt painted this portrait of Mary Walker Waugh (1805–1886)—his mother-in-law—during a time of personal tragedy. Waugh’s daughter Fanny Waugh Hunt (1832–1866), the wife of the artist, had recently died following childbirth. References to loss of life infiltrate the composition: the sitter wears black mourning attire, and behind her is a screen decorated with red poppies, a traditional symbol of unconsciousness and lifelessness because of its pharmaceutical use as a source for opiates. In Victorian society, the red poppy also signified consolation.
Provenance
Mrs. Michael Joseph, the artist's daughter, [1876-1951], London, United Kingdom, by inheritance to her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Burt; Mrs. Elizabeth Burt, London, United Kingdom consigned to Christie's for sale (1951-1961); (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, March 17, 1961, lot 70, sold to Evelyn Waugh) (1961); Auberon Evelyn Waugh [1903-1966], London. United Kingdom (1961); (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, March 18,1983, lot 73, sold to Julian Hartnoll) (1983); (Julian Hartnoll Gallery, London, United Kingdom, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1983-1984); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1984-)
Accession Number
1984.41
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Framed: 115.5 x 95.5 x 6 cm (45 1/2 x 37 5/8 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 86.2 x 66.1 cm (33 15/16 x 26 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting British
Background & Context
Background Story
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was a British painter known as one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose precisely observed, morally serious paintings make him one of the most important painters of the 19th-century British tradition. Mary Walker Waugh from 1868 depicts a portrait in the precisely observed manner that distinguishes Hunt's best work from the more general portrait painting of his contemporaries. The 1868 date places this in Hunt's most productive period, when he was producing the precisely observed, morally serious paintings that are his most accomplished works as one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Cultural Impact
Mary Walker Waugh is important in the history of British painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed manner that Hunt brought to portraiture as one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Hunt's precisely observed paintings—combining the Pre-Raphaelite emphasis on precise observation with the moral seriousness that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most important traditions in 19th-century British painting, and the 1868 portrait shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.
Why It Matters
Mary Walker Waugh is Hunt's Pre-Raphaelite portrait: a portrait rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The 1868 portrait shows the combination of Pre-Raphaelite precise observation with moral seriousness that makes Hunt one of the most important painters of the 19th-century British tradition.
