[Signed Holman Hunt letter.]

Important letter written, signed and dated 13th January 1896, by William Holman Hunt, with the original envelope post marked January 14th 1896. The letter if from William Holman Hunt, (1827-1910) and addresses to John Throgmorton Middlemore, the purchaser of two of Holman Hunt’s most important paintings, The Triumph of the Innocents and Christ Among the Doctors.

‘W. Holman Hunt’, Draycott Lodge, Fulham, 13 January 1896, to Mr Middlemore, ‘Your letter of the 11th inst. is all that can be deserid [sic] in expressing the terms of the bargain for the two pictures of The Triumph of the Innocents, and The Christ among the Doctors. I have further to thank you for generous provisions beyond the terms I demanded’, …

The letter continues with Hunt advising he will write to his carver and gilder concerning the frame, etc.,

Holman Hunt was one of the three most important members of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement. The Pre-Raphaelites were a secret society of young artists (and one writer, Ruskin), founded in London in 1848. The name Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood referred to the groups’ opposition to the Royal Academy’s promotion of the Renaissance master Raphael. They were opposed to the Academy’s promotion of the ideal as exemplified in the work of Raphael. They were also in revolt against the triviality of the immensely popular genre painting of time. Inspired by the theories of John Ruskin, who urged artists to ‘go to nature’, they believed in an art of serious subjects treated with maximum realism. Their principal themes were initially religious, but they also used subjects from literature and poetry, particularly those dealing with love and death. They also explored modern social problems. Its principal members were William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After initial heavy opposition the Pre-Raphaelites became highly influential, with a second phase of the movement from about 1860.

John Throgmorton Middlemore was the heir to a leather business founded by his father and he established The Middlemore Homes one of many agencies involved in child migration to Canada and Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century. Middlemore was also a great supporter of the Pre-Ralhaelite artists purchasing many of their paintings and drawings. Many of these were donated to the Birmingham, Liverpool and what is now known as the Tate Gallery.

The Triumph of the Innocents 1883–4 (Tate collection – Presented by Sir John Middlemore Bt 1918)

This famous painting was presented by Sir John Middlemore Bt in 1918 to the Tate Gallery.

Hunt began painting this subject while on his third visit to the Holy Land in the 1870s. It shows Mary, Joseph and infant Jesus escaping to Egypt as King Herod kills all the first-born males or ‘innocents’ in Bethlehem, described in The Gospel of Matthew, 2: 16-18.

On returning in 1878 from the Holy Land, Holman Hunt, who still kept on his house at Jerusalem, worked anew on his ‘Triumph of the Linocents’ at a Chelsea studio. The first picture he temporarily abandoned, and began a new version, which was finished in 1885. After exhibition in the Fine Art Society’s Galleries, this was acquired by Mr. J. T. Middlemore of Birmingham. Meanwhile Holman Hunt had repaired and repainted the earlier version, which was acquired by the Liverpool Art Gallery for 3500 guineas. The original design of the picture, which varies considerably from both the large versions, is in the collection of Sidney Morse.

Christ among the Doctors 1886 (Private collection)

A water-colour, ‘Christ among the Doctors,’ which now belongs to Mr. Middlemore, was executed in 1886, in which year as complete a collection of Holman Hunt’s works as could be brought together was shown by the Fine Art Society in London.