A Graduate of Pomona
William Henry Hunt, Still Life of Bird's Nest and Primroses (c. 1855)
Bird's Nest and Primroses
Private Collection
Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic
7 1/2 X 11 in., 18.5 X 28 cm.
Signed, l.l., W HUNT
Provenance:
The late Mrs. C. A. Champness, Cirenchester, England (S) Christie's, London, 2 Nov 1956, Lot 125(P) £16 6s. Leger [London dealer];
1962, with Leger Galleries, London
(S) Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1997, Lot 122 (P) £5,520 $8, 959 by the present owner.
This is a perfect example of the type of still life for which William Henry Hunt is still best known. The artist would literally compose such images by digging up and bringing banks of dirt into his studio and arranging flowers and nests to give the impression that they were just waiting to be seen along side a country lane. In fact, it took the artist about two weeks, painting in his cramped, 7 X 7 feet, rather dimly lit studio, to copy his little pieces of personally arranged nature. And Hunt would not apply a single stroke unless he was seated in front of his subjects, plants or humans, always trying to replicate exactly what he would see before him. Selectivity, idealization, any artistic theory other than empirical observation were alien concepts to Hunt. Art, to Hunt, came from the arranging of elements found in nature, not from sharing any visions he had in his mind of ideal natural forms or any fantasies which could never actually be seen in the real world (other than, perhaps,visions of oranges and pewter pitchers happily coexisting in their clean, fresh glory in piles of dirt!).
By the time he painted this watercolor, Hunt's still lifes were so popular throughout England, and especially with the newly rich of the Industrial Revolution, that every painting submitted by the artist to the annual, Spring watercolor exhibition in London had already been sold before it made it to the exhibition walls. The lucky new owners had to wait until after the exhibitions had closed to collect their purchases, however since attendees of the exhibition represented potential new patrons for the artist. And even though Hunt apparently preferred painting figure subjects, which had been the source of his earlier fame and fortune, the still life subjects were so much in demand and so much more profitable that he rarely returned to figure subjects after the early 1850s. Hunt became so closely associated with this new form of still life, designed by the artist to appear natural and informal, that he is still often referred to as "Bird's Nest Hunt."
William Henry Hunt, Still Life of Bird's Nest and Primroses (c. 1855)
Bird's Nest and Primroses
Private Collection
Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic
7 1/2 X 11 in., 18.5 X 28 cm.
Signed, l.l., W HUNT
Provenance:
The late Mrs. C. A. Champness, Cirenchester, England (S) Christie's, London, 2 Nov 1956, Lot 125(P) £16 6s. Leger [London dealer];
1962, with Leger Galleries, London
(S) Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1997, Lot 122 (P) £5,520 $8, 959 by the present owner.
This is a perfect example of the type of still life for which William Henry Hunt is still best known. The artist would literally compose such images by digging up and bringing banks of dirt into his studio and arranging flowers and nests to give the impression that they were just waiting to be seen along side a country lane. In fact, it took the artist about two weeks, painting in his cramped, 7 X 7 feet, rather dimly lit studio, to copy his little pieces of personally arranged nature. And Hunt would not apply a single stroke unless he was seated in front of his subjects, plants or humans, always trying to replicate exactly what he would see before him. Selectivity, idealization, any artistic theory other than empirical observation were alien concepts to Hunt. Art, to Hunt, came from the arranging of elements found in nature, not from sharing any visions he had in his mind of ideal natural forms or any fantasies which could never actually be seen in the real world (other than, perhaps,visions of oranges and pewter pitchers happily coexisting in their clean, fresh glory in piles of dirt!).
By the time he painted this watercolor, Hunt's still lifes were so popular throughout England, and especially with the newly rich of the Industrial Revolution, that every painting submitted by the artist to the annual, Spring watercolor exhibition in London had already been sold before it made it to the exhibition walls. The lucky new owners had to wait until after the exhibitions had closed to collect their purchases, however since attendees of the exhibition represented potential new patrons for the artist. And even though Hunt apparently preferred painting figure subjects, which had been the source of his earlier fame and fortune, the still life subjects were so much in demand and so much more profitable that he rarely returned to figure subjects after the early 1850s. Hunt became so closely associated with this new form of still life, designed by the artist to appear natural and informal, that he is still often referred to as "Bird's Nest Hunt."