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William Holman Hunt
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Holman Hunt's painting depicts a "kept woman" having a pang of conscience about the circumstances into which she has fallen--hence the title, "The Awakening Conscience." Holman Hunt found inspiration for this painting in Dickens's David Copperfield, which recounts the seduction of Little Emily by Steerforth. In true Pre-Raphaelite form, Holman Hunt rented a place in St. John's Wood, which was notorious for providing illicit meeting places. Holman Hunt sought to show how the young woman has been stirred to remorse and feelings of her childhood home by her lover playing on the piano.
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