William Henry Hunt, Still Life with a Dead Peacock, dated 1827

Still Life with a Dead Peacock

Currently untraced

Watercolor and gum arabic with scratching out

13 X 22 3/4 in., 33 X 58 cm.

 

Provenance:

Estate of William Leaf (S) Christie's London, 6 May 1865, Lot 170 (P) 320 5a., Agnew;

Holbrook Gaskell by 1888;

(S) Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1986, lot 160

 

Exhibited:

1888, Glasgow, Scotland, International Exhibition, No. XXXX (Lent by Holbrook Gaskel).

 

Literature:

Henly and Walker, A Century of Artists, a Memorial Loan Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, International Exhibition, Glasgow, 1888, p. 8X.

 

This elaborate still life with a dead peacock was undoubtedly William Henry Hunt's most ambitious venture into the field of still life when he exhibited it in the late 1820s (undoubtedly under a title such as A Study from Nature). It must have been quite a sensation, with all the amazing detail in so many subtile colors, all within such a limited range. One has to wonder how long these poor creatures had to lay on that table before Hunt finished the last stroke of this watercolor.

Done