The Father's Leave-Taking
William Holman Hunt British
Publisher The Etching Club British
Not on view
This print portrays Hunt’s second wife, Edith, holding their daughter Gladys. The pose recalls a Madonna of Humility, and the intense realism is characteristically endowed with symbolic resonance—after losing his first wife to sudden illness the artist was deeply aware of life’s fragility. The contrast between the grand classical column and domestic interior glimpsed through a doorway also echoes Renaissance nativities.
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