William Henry Hunt, Still Life with Pineapple and Plums, dated 1860, exhibited 1860

Still Life with Pineapple and Plums

Private collection

Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic

11¼ x 14 in., 28.5 x 35.5 cm.

Signed and dated, l.r., W. HUNtT '60

 

Provenance:

W. Eastlake by 1862;

James Fallow (S) Christie's, London, 23 May 1868, Lot 57 (P) £287 14 Agnew;

Thomas Agnew & Sons, Manchester, England [art dealer];

Jesse Haworth by 1887;

(S) Christie's, London, 21 May 1937 (P) £15 4s. 6d, Mitchell;

IS) Phillips, Chester, England, 15 Mar. 1995, Lot 269 (P) £4,100*, $6,573 David Daniels, New York, NY;

With the Shephard Gallery, New York, NY, Fall 1997;

David Daniels (S) Christie's London, 8 June 2000, Lot 209 (P) £6,463 $9,797 by the present owner.

 

Exhibited:

1861, London, Society of Painters in Water-colours, Spring Exhibition, No. 238 (as "Pineapple);

1862, London, International Exhibition; No. 1032 (A Pinapple and Plums, lent by W. Eastlake);

1887, Manchester, England, The Royal Jubilee Exhibtion, No. 1700 (lent by Jesse Haworth);

27 Oct. to 13 Dec. 1997, New York, N.Y., Shephard Gallery, English Realist Watercolors 1830-1915, No. 15.

 

 

This is one of the few, late still life watercolors by William Henry Hunt which bears a date -- 1860. Although the artist often dated his work from about 1825 until 1839 (especially those shown at the Society of Painters in Water Colours annual spring exhibitions), he dated extraordinarily few of his works during the following 20 years. Any work which bears a date from the 1850s should be viewed with some suspicion, if only as to the authenticity of the date. Hunt's still lifes which are dated 1838 or 1839 always have neutral backgrounds and the objects painted are usually shown on wooden tables. The artist did not start painting his then innovative moss covered dirt backgrounds until the 1840s. There are a handful of still lifes by Hunt with mossy backgrounds which are dated 1860, but most are small (around 4 X 6 inches). This example is perhaps the only major still life watercolor from the end of the artist's career which is dated 1860. And it is certainly one of his greatest works, showing that Hunt's skills continuously improved, to the very end of his life.

 

Hunt specifically chose the fruit he would depict in his still lifes according to the intended size of the painting. Small works almost always had grapes or apples as the subjects, while large ones usually had either a melon or a pineapple. Hunt is quoted as saying that he couldn't paint any large still lifes until some large fruit became available in London.

 

Lot Notes from 2000 sale:

William Henry Hunt was born in London, the son of a tin plate worker. He gained an apprenticeship under John Varley (1788-1842) and also enrolled in Dr. Munro's drawing classes. From approximately 1840 onwards Hunt turned to the still-life paintings which brought him immense popularity in his lifetime and which were painted with meticulous attention to detail, appealing to an age obsessed with scientific observation and classification. Hunt's ability to capture fragile surfaces and depths of colour of plums was particularly admired, in 1851 The Art Journal described such a drawing as the 'ne plus ultra of fruit painting; if the bloom upon the plums has been disturbed by the wing of a gnat, it is not omitted ...' (p. 163).

 

While the artist painted a number of watercolors featuring Pineapples, this particular example is almost certainly the one which was included in the 1861 spring exhibition. Not only is the date of 1860 consistent with the 1861 exhibition date (meaning it would have been painted after the opening of the 1860 exhibition, at some time later in the year 1860), but it is the only watercolor known to me which shows a pineapple along with prominent images of plums. The reviewer writing for The Critic, May 4, 1861, p. 575, stated the following regarding two of the watercolors by Hunt in the then current watercolor society exhibition:

 

"From his tried, and it is hardly too much to say ever-progressive hand, we have this year five precious little bits: Two of them, in fact, not so small in size as he oftenest paints now. We allude to "The (dead) Wood Pigeon" (131), hung below the line -- a lovely bit of tender harmony of colour, and the gleaming "Pineapple" (238) with its acessories of bloomy plums and the usual mossy background. The latter is one of the most powerful and magical pieces of painting for color, relief, and deep yet delicate tone, even William Hunt has painted."

Done