William Henry Hunt, Still Life of a Pineapple, Pomegranate, and Grapes (c. 1832)

Still Life of a Pineapple, Pomegranate, and Grapes

Private Collection

Watercolor and gum arabic

9 1/4 X 13 1/4 in.; 23.5 33.5 cm

Signed, l.l, W. HUNT

 

 

Provenance:

W.M. Bigg;

William Quilter (S) Christie's London, 1875

(S) Sotheby's 27 Feb 1985, Lot 166, (P) £1,300 by the present owner

 

Exhibited:

1862, London, International Exhibition;

1868, Leeds, England, Exhibition of Works of Art;

1871, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club;

1871, Ventnor, Isle of Wright, Loan Exhibition of Watercolou;r Drawings in Aid for the National Hospital for Consumption;

1990, San Marino, California, The Huntington Library, Art Galleries, and Botanical Gardens, Rustic Life in Victorian Britain: The Watercolors of William Henry Hunt.

 

Once part of the famous watercolor collection of the London banker, WIlliam Quilter, this is a good, early example of Hunt's inclusion of a Pineapple in one of his still life composition. The artist had not yet invented his signature background of moss covered dirt but rests his objects on a table top. His color scheme is much more restricted than in his later works, but he has begun to use stippling to define the forms and textures of the objects that he had placed exactly as shown here before beginning to paint this composition.

Done