Will O' the Wisp

Maker William Holman Hunt (British, 1827 - 1910)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Dateca.1861

Mediumpen and brush and black ink and waterolor on wove paper

Dimensionssheet/ image: 4 1/8 x 5 1/4 in. (10.5 x 13.3 cm.) mat: 19 x 12 1/2 in. (48.3 x 31.8 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextHunt noted in his diary on November 14, 1855, that he saw the “will-o’-the-wisp” while on an evening stroll. The experience likely served as the basis for this drawing, in which a spiraling ball of white seems to pulse against the dark background. Though its phosphorescence is a natural phenomenon, the willo’-the-wisp appears in British folklore as a ghostly light believed to lead travelers astray. In Hunt’s hands, it serves as a typical Victorian allegory of what can happen when a girl allows herself to be ruled by her desires. He depicts the moment when the figure, writhing in torment against the call of the phantom, is about to give in and plunge into the blackness that surrounds her (2022).

Object number70.104

Terms