Title

The Hireling Shepherd', 1851, (1948).

Caption

'The Hireling Shepherd', 1851, (1948). A shepherd neglects his flock and woos a young woman with a lamb on her lap. Behind them, two bloated sheep lie on the ground poisoned by the corn. The scene is rich in symbolism, including a death's-head hawkmoth in the shepherd's hand, the straying sheep, the transgressing of boundaries, and the apples and wildflowers. Hunt's own explanation was that the couple symbolised the pointless theological debates engaged in by Christian churchmen, while a lack of proper moral guidance caused their 'flock' to go astray. Painting in Manchester City Art Gallery. From "The Saturday Book", Eighth Year, edited by Leonard Russell. [Hutchinson, London, 1948]

Date

1948

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Reference

HRM19F05_165

Model release

No

License type

Rights managed

Available size

60,8Mb (3,7Mb) / 18,5in x 12,8in / 5544 x 3834 (300dpi)

Keywords

oil nature animal countryside England season agriculture field fields female women woman people male man men symbolic stream summer romance religious fruit flower flowers plant plants arts country religion insect book guy romantic flock sheep English apple shade color lamb wild flowers wild flower moth Christianity farmland location Victorian century shepherd irresponsibility flirting literature lady concept barrel barrels wildflower 1940s symbolism wildflowers wooing Forties Colour 19th century romancing 20th century nineteenth century apples The Print Collector artistic school decade Pre-Raphaelite shepherdess oil Emma William Holman Hunt Holman Hunt Russell artistic style Hunt William Holman Hunt Holman Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Leonard Saturday Book Leonard Russell death's head hawkmoth Emma Watkins Watkins