2-706-058 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Hireling Shepherd', 1851, (1948). A shepherd neglects his flock and woos a young woman with a lamb on her lap. Behind them, two bloated sheep lie on the ground poisoned by the corn. The scene is rich in symbolism, including a death's-head hawkmoth in the shepherd's hand, the straying sheep, the transgressing of boundaries, and the apples and wildflowers. Hunt's own explanation was that the couple symbolised the pointless theological debates engaged in by Christian churchmen, while a lack of proper moral guidance caused their 'flock' to go astray. Painting in Manchester City Art Gallery. From "The Saturday Book", Eighth Year, edited by Leonard Russell. [Hutchinson, London, 1948]