Reference code
SP/1/94
Title
William Holman Hunt, Draycott Lodge, Fulham, to Spielmann
Date
25 Jul 1889
Level
Item
Extent & medium
1 piece
Content Description
His attention has been given to ill friends and he missed the announced reforms by the Academy. It is true, niggardly proposals mark the time where "the outsiders" can restate their full claim and he is glad to see Spielmann writing on the subject. But the abuses of the Royal Academy are incurable. Society as a whole is inflated with vanity. "The poor I always maintain (and did so before the Whitechapel people declared for my work) do look out for...sensible workmanship, but...the rich are only taken in by clap trap". The want in society shows itself in the lack of steadfastness in the reformers themselves. It is easy to say, as everyone has in his lifetime, "it will be better to reform it from the inside". He thinks Europe is approaching a great crisis.
His picture is nearly finished. He showed it to some friends in Oxford, to show he had been working.