The Light of the World (painting)

Hunt had earlier told Clodd… of my having used a cast from a clay model made by me, with a variety of male sitters, my father, Millais, John Capper and, in person, furtively from Carlyle, also from many departed heroes in effigy – the best I could get serving as my model for different parts of the head …Hunt replied that "What [the author of the article] says about Miss Christina Rossetti sitting for the head .

"[4] The original is variously said to have been painted at night in a makeshift hut at Worcester Park Farm in Surrey, and in the garden of the Oxford University Press,[5] while it is suggested that Hunt found the dawn light he needed outside Bethlehem on one of his visits to the Holy Land.

[9] A second, smaller version of the work, painted by Hunt between 1851 and 1856, is on display at Manchester City Art Gallery, England, which purchased it in 1912.

The fact that, at the time, Keble College charged a fee to view the picture,[5] persuaded Hunt to paint a larger, life-sized, version toward the end of his life.

The painting gave rise to much popular devotion in the late Victorian period and inspired several musical works, including Arthur Sullivan's 1873 oratorio The Light of the World.