
Not on display
- Artist
- William Holman Hunt 1827–1910
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 762 × 978 mm
frame: 1101 × 1305 × 135 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by subscribers 1907
- Reference
- N02120
Display caption
Hunt began this painting after a voyage to the East with his second wife, Edith. Unusually, he painted it largely from memory, rather than from life.The ship could be seen as a metaphor for Hunt's life and religious uncertainty. He wanted to suggest the idea of life as a journey ‘with no guidance from Him but the name of the port to be reached ... nothing but the silent stars to steer by for the heavily freighted ship and no welcome till the land is reached’. Perhaps the woman is Edith and the man at the wheel Hunt himself.
Gallery label, July 2007
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- literature and fiction(3,165)
- night(681)
- tools and machinery(1,299)
-
- wheel(21)
- transport: water(8,024)
-
- ship, steam(63)
- trading and commercial(1,159)
-
- sailor(121)
You might like
-
William Holman Hunt The Triumph of the Innocents
1883–4 -
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt The Knight Errant
1870 -
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
1884 -
Simeon Solomon The Moon and Sleep
1894 -
Arthur Hughes The Eve of St Agnes
1856 -
John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott
1888 -
William Holman Hunt The Awakening Conscience
1853 -
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt The Vale of Rest
1858–9 -
William Holman Hunt John Hunt
date not known -
Arthur Hughes April Love
1855–6 -
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Dantis Amor
1860 -
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Beata Beatrix
c.1864–70 -
Arthur Hughes That was a Piedmontese ...
1862 -
Arthur Hughes Aurora Leigh’s Dismissal of Romney (‘The Tryst’)
1860 -
Frederic George Stephens The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda)
c.1850