[An abstract of a presentation to be delivered at the "Hitting the Road! Experiences and writing of travellers in the Victorian and Edwardian Eras Conference" (University of Tours, 2-3 February, 2023). — Taylor Tomko]
he Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) travelled extensively to and across the Holy Land, where he painted some of his most famous religious pictures.
riting from Jerusalem to his friend William Bell Scott in 1870, he described his physical experience of travel in space as an intellectual motion in time: "We pass not merely from village to town, and from town to desert, or to an Arab encampment, lying down for the nights rest under the unscreened stars; but we pass from century to century, from Abraham to Cambyses, from Herodotus to Jesus Christ, then to Mohammed and so to the Crusaders. There are, too, such undreamed-of scenes as though they did not belong to this world, but rather to the moon" (WHH to WBS 7 April 1870, Scott, Autobiographical notes 2: 89). Hunt's enthusiasm for the Eastern landscapes came at a cost though, as he explored the countryside looking for specific backgrounds for his paintings alongside a man who became his model and was a notorious highway robber. This man who rode like a Centaur became his travelling companion and the two riders armed to the teeth caused a wholesome dread into all the country wherever they went (WHH to WBS 30 Sept 1871, Scott, Autobiographical notes 2: 104).
While Holman Hunt's art has yielded numerous analyses, the physical experience and the practical arrangements of the artist's journeys and stays abroad has not. Yet, mentions of perilous sea-crossings, adventurous horse-rides and nightly excursions abound in the artists diaries and letters. This paper intends to retrace the lived motion of his body, and to suggest ways in which this may have impacted his art.
Created 16 January 2023