Study for 'The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple'

William Holman Hunt

Materials: Pencil

Troublesome models

In a long letter of 16 March to Millais, Hunt bemoaned the difficulty he encountered in Cairo in obtaining models to sit for him, both due to the constraints of oriental society and from the uncertainty of knowing what features might lie beneath the veil.

He found less trouble with children than with adults, making many quick sketches and finally finding one sitter who posed long enough to inspire a single-figure painting, 'The Afterglow in Egypt' (Southampton Art Gallery), completed in 1863:

Cave by the Pyramids

"I prevailed upon the friends of a full-grown damsel to allow her to sit to me for an oil picture, but I had to undertake my work in an open cave under the plateau of the Pyramids, at times convenient for the girl, and at short notice". 

Such informal sketches must have been pressed into service when Hunt had to leave Cairo. Seddon managed to arrange passage to Jaffa and the Holy Land, and it was on the boat ride down the eastern branch of the Nile to Damietta that Hunt turned his thoughts to preparation for a more important painting:

Hunting on the Nile 

"I had already decided on the subject of 'The Finding of Christ in the Temple' as that to which I should devote myself on my arrival in Jerusalem. The working out of the design was a most appropriate occasion for the leisure of life on a boat, going down the stream with no disturbance but that of the morning swim and the hour's constitutional on the banks after luncheon, when an occasional shot secured supplies for the cook". 

Sold for a fortune

This design for the figure group of the Holy Family in 'The Finding of the Saviour' in the Temple was probably a product of the boat trip. Such 'working' sheets were usually destroyed. Hunt was adamant, however, even in such adverse circumstances, about "the very important advantage of studying positions from the nude".

Hunt found it difficult to obtain sitters so on his return to London, Jewish schoolboys modelled for him to complete the painting. His patience was rewarded when the painting sold 5,500 guineas), which was to remain the highest sum paid to a living artist in the nineteenth century.