The Light of the World

William Holman Hunt

1851-53

Oil on canvas

When I first came across this painting of Jesus, my eyes went directly to the lantern. In other paintings, usually our eyes would look directly at his face, but here we can see the focal point is the lantern. I love Hunt's use of illumination in this painting: the slight reflection of light under his eyebrows, eyes, and chin, and also the light from the moon behind his head. Hunt painted this in the moonlight illustrating Revelation 3:20, and 50 years after painting this he felt the need to explain the symbolism saying, "I painted the picture with what I thought to be by Divine command, and not simply as a good Subject."