Isabella and the Pot of Basil

Abstract

William Holman Hunt conceived the idea to collaborate with John Everett Millais in composing designs from John Keats' Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil before the 1848 initiation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (P.R.B.). In his memoir, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt recounts a conversation in Millais' studio where the idea of finding a subject to study from Isabella first springs into his mind: "My first attempt to communicate to Millais my enthusiasm for Keats was for the moment a ludicrous failure. Going, to his studio, I took the volume of Isabella from my pocket, and asking him to sit down and listen, read some favorite stanzas.