ロンドンに生まれ、10代のころは事務の仕事をしながら絵を学び、ロイヤル・アカデミーの美術学校に入りました。1848年、ミレイやロセッティと「ラファエル前派兄弟団」をつくります。仲間がそれぞれの道に進んだあとも、自然を細かく正確に描くという考えを生涯つらぬきました。聖書の場面を本物らしく描くため、中東の聖地へ何度も旅をしています。
Hunt was born in London. As a teenager he worked in an office while studying art, and then he entered the Royal Academy Schools. In 1848 he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with Millais and Rossetti. Even after his friends went their own ways, he kept to the idea of painting nature in close, true detail all his life. To paint Bible stories realistically, he traveled several times to the Holy Land in the Middle East.
