The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Study for "The Hireling Shepherd"

Study for "The Hireling Shepherd"

1851
(British, 1827–1910)
Sheet: 11.4 x 18.3 cm (4 1/2 x 7 3/16 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Bronkhurst D55
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

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.

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 The Hireling Shepherd, 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.
  • 1910-?
    The artist's family, by descent
    ?-probably 1985
    Mrs. Elisabeth Burt
    1985
    (sale, Sotheby's, London, October 10, 1985, no. 15)
    1985-1986
    (Peter Nahum, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1986-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Hunt, William Holman. Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 2nd rev. ed. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1914. Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 189 hdl.handle.net
    Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the 1860 Period. Exh. Cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1923. Mentioned: p. 28, no. 148
    The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1861). Exh. Cat. Birmingham: Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1947. Mentioned: p. 32, no. 151
    William Holman Hunt. Exh. Cat. Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, 1969. Mentioned: p. 32, no. 151
    An Exhibition of Drawings by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown. Exh. Cat. Portsmouth: Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, 1976. Mentioned: p. 12, no. 13
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1986." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (1987): 38-79. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 69, no. 151 25159974
    Bronkhurst, Judith. William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 2, p. 35, no. D55
    Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 96-97, 146, no. 32; Reproduced: p. 97
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
    Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).
    An Exhibition of Drawings by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown. Portsmouth City Museum (1976).
    William Holman Hunt. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (March 25 - April 29, 1969).
    The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1861). Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (June 7 - July 27, 1947).
    Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the 1860 Period. National Gallery, London (April 27 - June 29, 1923).
  • {{cite web|title=Study for "The Hireling Shepherd"|url=false|author=William Holman Hunt|year=1851|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.18