Literature: J,Bronkhurst, William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonne, Yale, 2006, drawings vol, p.169, no.D341(illustrated)

Judith Bronkhurst (op cit) has identified the present work as part of a series of drawings relating to “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”.  The passage is a quotation from Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida and is also a private meditation by the artist on family life. Holman Hunt’s own family are the models for the drawing, the young child to the left of the roundel being a portrait of his daughter Gladys. The tondo is based on similar reliefs by Luca or Andre Della Robbia (examples of which were in the artist’s own collection), but the Madonna on the roundel is a portrait of Holman Hunt’s wife.  The age of Hunt’s daughter in this drawing helps to date the work to c.1878.