A Graduate of Pomona
Fig. 4a William Henry Hunt, A Sporting Gentleman, dated 1836
A Sporting Gentleman
Currently untraced
Watercolor and gum arabic with scratching out
17 X 21 1/4 in., 43.5 X 54 cm.
Signed and dated, W. HUNT 1836
Provenance:
(S) Sotheby's New York, 6 June 1985, Lot 240 (P) Bought in, but subsequently sold to Cyril Fry on behalf of an American collector.
Some had identified this watercolor of a hunter with his trophies as being the work exhibited by Hunt at the 1834 exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, but an engraving of the center portion of the watercolor is dated 1831. My suspicion that the watercolor was a later reworking of the earlier engraved work was shown to be true when a letter from Hunt recently turned in which the artist explained that the original composition had never been exhibited and that he had made additions to a new version of the 1831 watercolor. Not only did he add the dog, he lengthened the table to hold more images of dead game and actually changed the setting to a less formal interior.
Fig. 4a William Henry Hunt, A Sporting Gentleman, dated 1836
A Sporting Gentleman
Currently untraced
Watercolor and gum arabic with scratching out
17 X 21 1/4 in., 43.5 X 54 cm.
Signed and dated, W. HUNT 1836
Provenance:
(S) Sotheby's New York, 6 June 1985, Lot 240 (P) Bought in, but subsequently sold to Cyril Fry on behalf of an American collector.
Some had identified this watercolor of a hunter with his trophies as being the work exhibited by Hunt at the 1834 exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, but an engraving of the center portion of the watercolor is dated 1831. My suspicion that the watercolor was a later reworking of the earlier engraved work was shown to be true when a letter from Hunt recently turned in which the artist explained that the original composition had never been exhibited and that he had made additions to a new version of the 1831 watercolor. Not only did he add the dog, he lengthened the table to hold more images of dead game and actually changed the setting to a less formal interior.