William Henry Hunt, Study from Nature at Twickenham (c. 1806)

Study from Nature at Twickenham

London, The Tate, No. T01154

Oil on board

12 / 15/16 X 6 5/8, 32.9 X 16.8

Incribed on back, probably in John Linell's hand, "Study from Nature at Twickenham By Wm Hunt about 1806"

 

This oil painting is unquestionably by William Henry Hunt, which attribution is confirmed almost exclusively by the inscription and its compelling provenance. But it is one of the very few paintings, all from the earliest years of his working as an artist, which is painted in oil and actually by Hunt. The lesson is that unless there is some reason to concluded that an oil painting attributed to Hunt is from first years of the 19th century, it cannot actually be by Hunt. This essentially means that any genre picture or still life in oil that is said to be by Hunt is misattributed. Yet such misattributed paintings appear all the time at auction, even in sales at prominent action houses. Buyers beware!

 

 

Provenance:

John Linnell, and by descent to his great granddaughter, Mrs. John Lucas (S) Christie's London, 10 Oct 1959, Lot 59 (P) Butlin for the Tate Gallery.

 

Literature:

he Tate Gallery 1968-70, London 1970

 

While William Henry Hunt was still apprenticed to John Varley, he and another Varley pupil, John Linnell, would go out together and make sketches from nature. Varley had a house at Twickenham, where this subject was painted and apparently given to Linnell. Hunt was working in both oil and watercolor at this point, and this is one of his very rare oil sketches from that period.

 

 

 

Done