A Graduate of Pomona
William Henry Hunt, The Outhouse, Dated and Exhibited 1838
The Outhouse
Cambridge, England, The Fitzwilliam Museum, No. 739
Watercolor and bodycolor with gum arabic and scratching out
21 X 29 1/2 in.; 54 X 74.9 cm
Signed and dated, lr, W. Hunt 1838
Provenance:
Charles Frederick Huth (S) 6 July 1895, No. 28 [Girl at Shed Door, 21 X 29 1/2 in.) (P) 215 5 s. Agnew;
Humphrey Roberts (S) Christie's London, 23 May 1908 (P) Murray;
Charles Fairfax Murray, by whom given to the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1912.
Literature:
Sir John Witt, William Henry Hunt, 1982, no. 321 and plate 15;
Andrew Wilton, British Watercolours, 1750-1850, 1977, page 190 and plate 139;
Jane Bayard, Works of Splendor and Imagination: The Exhibition Watercolour, 1770-1870, New Haven: New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 1981.
Yet another of the large watercolors painted by WIlliam Henry Hunt in the late 1830s, now in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge University. This is probably the most reproduced of all the artist's figure studies. Again we see his wife, Sarah, as she is standing at the door of an outbuilding on her family's farm in Bramley. Note the location of the various objects, but especially the battered chest in the bottom right corner of the painting.
Although William Henry Hunt would rarely paint replicas or versions of his own work, he seemed to customarily paint a series of related watercolors using his favorite settings. In Hunt's time, the price of a watercolor was largely determined by the size of the work. I suspect that Hunt made similar paintings in various sizes so that visitors to the annual watercolor exhibitions of various means would have opportunities to purchase one of his watercolors of a specific type.
Paintings showing this shed are easily identified by the repeated appearance of this chest, which, presumably, was heavy and rarely, if ever, moved. By considering where the chest appears in each painting, one could probably reconstructed a 360 degree view of the shed, undoubtedly one of the most important sheds ever seen in Western painting - for what that's worth.
William Henry Hunt, The Outhouse, Dated and Exhibited 1838
The Outhouse
Cambridge, England, The Fitzwilliam Museum, No. 739
Watercolor and bodycolor with gum arabic and scratching out
21 X 29 1/2 in.; 54 X 74.9 cm
Signed and dated, lr, W. Hunt 1838
Provenance:
Charles Frederick Huth (S) 6 July 1895, No. 28 [Girl at Shed Door, 21 X 29 1/2 in.) (P) 215 5 s. Agnew;
Humphrey Roberts (S) Christie's London, 23 May 1908 (P) Murray;
Charles Fairfax Murray, by whom given to the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1912.
Literature:
Sir John Witt, William Henry Hunt, 1982, no. 321 and plate 15;
Andrew Wilton, British Watercolours, 1750-1850, 1977, page 190 and plate 139;
Jane Bayard, Works of Splendor and Imagination: The Exhibition Watercolour, 1770-1870, New Haven: New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 1981.
Yet another of the large watercolors painted by WIlliam Henry Hunt in the late 1830s, now in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge University. This is probably the most reproduced of all the artist's figure studies. Again we see his wife, Sarah, as she is standing at the door of an outbuilding on her family's farm in Bramley. Note the location of the various objects, but especially the battered chest in the bottom right corner of the painting.
Although William Henry Hunt would rarely paint replicas or versions of his own work, he seemed to customarily paint a series of related watercolors using his favorite settings. In Hunt's time, the price of a watercolor was largely determined by the size of the work. I suspect that Hunt made similar paintings in various sizes so that visitors to the annual watercolor exhibitions of various means would have opportunities to purchase one of his watercolors of a specific type.
Paintings showing this shed are easily identified by the repeated appearance of this chest, which, presumably, was heavy and rarely, if ever, moved. By considering where the chest appears in each painting, one could probably reconstructed a 360 degree view of the shed, undoubtedly one of the most important sheds ever seen in Western painting - for what that's worth.