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Source Description
Together with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt was one of the founding members in 1848 of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of young artists who rejected the heavy darkness and idealization of academic history painting, replacing it with meticulously observed, jewel-colored naturalistic detail. This is a study for the figures in the oil painting <em>The Hireling Shepherd</em>, Hunt’s first commercial success. The poses of the couple in the painting are remarkably close to the early study: the shepherd approaches the shepherdess upon his knees, encircling her shoulders with his arm. Devoid of extraneous detail, the study concentrates on the romantic play and erotic tension expressed by the lovers’ intertwined limbs and faces and hands that stop just short of touching.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
153206
label
Study for "The Hireling Shepherd"
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
153206
contentType
drawing
title
Study for "The Hireling Shepherd"
description
Together with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt was one of the founding members in 1848 of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of young artists who rejected the heavy darkness and idealization of academic history painting, replacing it with meticulously observed, jewel-colored naturalistic detail. This is a study for the figures in the oil painting <em>The Hireling Shepherd</em>, Hunt’s first commercial success. The poses of the couple in the painting are remarkably close to the early study: the shepherd approaches the shepherdess upon his knees, encircling her shoulders with his arm. Devoid of extraneous detail, the study concentrates on the romantic play and erotic tension expressed by the lovers’ intertwined limbs and faces and hands that stop just short of touching.
date
1851
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79938764
creators
1483
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 11.4 x 18.3 cm (4 1/2 x 7 3/16 in.)
cul
England, 19th century
accession
1986.18
Source extras
tec
graphite
tombstone
Study for "The Hireling Shepherd", 1851. William Holman Hunt (British, 1827–1910). Graphite; sheet: 11.4 x 18.3 cm (4 1/2 x 7 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund, 1986.18
supportMaterials
description
off-white laid paper
watermarks
WDNEY'S
collection
DR - British
inscriptions
inscription
inscribed, in graphite, on verso, at lower edge: Sketch for figures in Hireling Shepherd; in graphite, on verso, at center of sheet: First Drawing Hireling Shepherd Pale Cream Mt o Linen same as Scapegoat o Frame same
didYouKnow
Contemporary viewers would have recognized the painting for which this drawing is a study as bearing a deeper meaning: the couple's risky flirtation will lead to disastrous consequences and the shepherd ignores his flock while distracted by romance.
citations
citation
Hunt, William Holman. <em>Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood</em>. 2nd rev. ed. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1914.
page_number
Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 189
citation
<em>Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the 1860 Period</em>. Exh. Cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1923.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 28, no. 148
citation
<em>The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1861)</em>. Exh. Cat. Birmingham: Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1947.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 32, no. 151
citation
<em>William Holman Hunt</em>. Exh. Cat. Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, 1969.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 32, no. 151
citation
<em>An Exhibition of Drawings by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown</em>. Exh. Cat. Portsmouth: Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, 1976.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 12, no. 13
citation
Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1986." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 74, no. 2 (1987): 38-79.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 69, no. 151
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25159974
citation
Bronkhurst, Judith. <em>William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonné</em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 2, p. 35, no. D55
citation
Lemonedes, Heather. <em>British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 96-97, 146, no. 32; Reproduced: p. 97
catalogueRaisonne
Bronkhurst D55
creditline
Delia E. Holden Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:54:41.980000
sourceId
153206
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
graphite
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
0c389530cfcb67cb