19e. William Henry Hunt, Interior of a Barn, c. 1837-38

Interior of a Barn

Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis Institute of Arts,No. 98.42

Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic with scratching out

21 3/4 X 30 in., 55.25 X 76.2 cm.

 

Provenance:

Mr. Griffith until at least 1859;

John Major Threlfall (S) Christie's London 13 May 1864, Lot 66 (P) £220 10s. Agnew (London dealer);

Dr. Sharpe until at least 1873;

Holbrook Gaskell by 1888;

The late Holbrook Gaskell (S) Christie's London, 25 June 1909, Lot 205 (P) 50 gns. Agnew;

Frank Gaskell;

Ernest and Roger Gaskell, sons of Frank Gaskell;

Descendants of Holbrook Gaskel (S) Sotheby's London, XX 1987, (P) Bought In;

(S) Sotheby's London, 10 April 1997, Lot 113 (P) £ 51,000*, $82,778* Lowell Libson;

Purchased from Lowell Libson in 1998 by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with money from The Putnam Dana McMillan Fund and the William Hood Dunwoody Fund.

 

Exhibited:

1862, London, England, International Exhibition, No. 1038;

1877-78, London, Grosvenor Gallery, Wintet Exhibition of Drawings by the Old Masters and Watercolour Drawings by Deceased Artists of the British School, No. 192;

1888, Glasgow, Scotland, International Exhibition, No. 1410 (Lent by Holbrook Gaskel);

1898, Warrington, Corporation of Warrington Loan Exhibition of Paintings, 1898, No. 205.

 

Literature:

The Athenaeum, "The Private Collections of England" by F. G. Stephens, 4 Oct 1884, p. 437;

Henly and Walker, A Century of Artists, a Memorial Loan Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, International Exhibition, Glasgow, 1888, p. 87;

Christopher Wood, Victorian Paintings in Oils and Watercolour, London, 1996, p. 121, color plate 56.

 

 

This large watercolor, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, shows the interior of a barn on the farm of the artist's father-in-law in Bramley, Hampshire, England. Hunt had married his first cousin, Sarah Holloway, and was a frequent visitor to the Holloway farm. In fact, the 1851 Census of England shows Hunt and his wife as visitors on the very day the census was taken.

 

There are a number of watercolors by Hunt from the late 1830s and early 1840s which were painted in either the barn or a shed on the Holloway farm. The Minneapolis watercolor provides the most complete view of the interior of the barn, with Sarah Hunt looking at the viewer from the partially open barn door. It is quite a remarkable example of Hunt's skill in depicting various lighting conditions and the interplay between light and various textures. Another example of similar size, showing just a portion of the barn, close up, is found in The Eavesdropper from 1839.

 

Done