William Henry Hunt, Rehearsing the Lesson, aka, Hearing Lessons, exhibited 1848

Rehearsing the Lesson

Victoria & Albert Museum, Inv. No. 1138.1886/BGM

watercolor, 14 1/2 X 13 1/2 inches, 368 X 344 cm.

signed, lower left, W. Hunt

 

Provenance:

William Henry Hunt, (s) his estate sale, Christie's, 16 May 1864

Joshua Dixon, by whom bequeathed in 1886, to the Bethnal Green Museum, London, England;

Deposited at the Victoria & Albert Museum by the Bethnal Green Museum.

 

Exhibited:

1848, Society of Painters in Water-colours, No. 310, 35 gns., unsold

 

Literature:

The Spectator, 6 May 1848, p. 447.

 

This example of a genre subject shown in a suburban setting is representative of a large class of watercolors painted by Hunt in the 1830s and 1840s. We can see that, despite a bit of sentimentality, Hunt was consistent in painting dignified images of contemporary figures engaged in a wide range of human activities. Nothing sets his early rustic figures apart, let alone above, Hunt's consistently fine figure paintings. By virtue of Hunt's much more accomplished technical abilities and the artist's fully developed sense of color displayed in these mature works, many consider them to be the artist's highest achievements in watercolor painting. If The Head Gardener, No. xxx, and this later watercolor of similar size were hung alongside of each other, it is likely that the mature work is the image that would catch the eyes and most favorably remain in the memories of most viewers.

 

This watercolor, currently held by the VIctoria and Albert Museum, London, is probably identical to the one that was still in William Henry Hunt's possession at the time of his death in 1864 and included in the artist's estate sale at Christie's. In general, Hunt did not seem to become too attached to his own paintings, most likely because of his reported habit of favoring the crisp bank notes flashed by anxious dealers over any sentimental desire to keep his own work. But, in this instance, the artist probably kept a watercolor of considerable value, one measuring 14 1/2 X 13 1/2 inches and painted in the late 1840s, when his figure paintings were in extremely high demand, because of the wonderful images of his wife and the young girl surrounded by sensitively painted, form defining light - almost like halos. Few other artists in history, one might argue not even Vermeer, have more successfully represented the way morning sunlight streams through windows and envelopes every object and person inside a dwelling, as Hunt did in this important watercolor.

 

The work was described as follows in the Spectator's review of the 1848 Spring Exhibition:

 

"One picture represents the kitchen of a comfortable country cottage, with a girl rehearsing her lesson to a young woman before departing for school The whole scene -- the kitchen furniture, the cross light, the window and the open light beyond it, the listener, the girl, her expression as she searches for the evanescent idea in the air, her ganze bonnet, her checkered frock, her attitude, her shows, the tiles on the floor, the workbox and that basket -- catch the eye by turns, and sake you laugh at the truthfulness and the admirable concealment of art by itself -- the force , and the wonderful skill by which the distinctness and projection of Nature are copies with Nature's harmony and beauty."

 

Done