DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/02FW-0M59
Defense Date
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Art History
First Advisor
Catherine Roach
Second Advisor
Eric Garberson
Third Advisor
Kathleen Chapman
Abstract
The thesis examines the connection between Jan van Eyck’s (c. 1390-1441) Portrait of a Man (“Léal Souvenir”) (1432) and William Holman Hunt’s portrait of Henry Wentworth Monk (1858). Holman Hunt and Henry Monk shared a period of personal transformation upon their first meeting in Syria in 1854 and again in London in 1858. The execution of Monk’s portrait coincided with National Gallery’s acquisition of Léal Souvenir in 1857. Hunt’s appropriation of stylistic elements and themes drawn from van Eyck’s pictures is a subject that has been addressed by scholars in Hunt’s major works throughout his artistic career. The little known portrait of Monk has, heretofore, been excluded from the current scholarship on this topic. A careful reading of Hunt’s signs and symbols argues for its inclusion.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-26-2017