William Henry Hunt, A Sleeping Trooper, Exhibited 1842

A Sleeping Trooper

Private collection

Watercolor and bodycolor with scratching out

16 X 11 1/2 inches, 41 X 29 cm.

Signed, l.l., W. HUNT

 

Provenance:

Probably dr. Macturk by 1868;

Probably (S) Christie's London, 1 July 1907, Lot 120

(The Sleeping Soldier, 17 X 1 3/4 in.), (P) £5 5s. Sampson [London deaer],

(S) Sotheby's Belgravia, London, 28 Nov 1972, Lot 34;

(S) Bourne End Aucton Rooms, Buckinghamshire, England, 2 Sept 2015, Lot 50 (P) £1,200*

 

Exhibited:

Spring 1842, London, Society of Painters in Water-Colours, No. 20 (A Sleeping Trooper);

Probably, 1868, Leeds, National Exhibition of Works of Art, No. 2268, The Cavalier Off Duty, lent by Dr. Macturk.

 

In the early 1840s, Hunt exhibited a number of works showing pieces of armor, the depiction of which, with metalic surfaces reflecting light and color, undoubtedly provided him opportunities to display technical virtuosities in the use of watercolor. In Remnants of the Tournament (1841), his boy model is merely standing amonst a suit of armor, while in this work from 1842 he actually had the boy wear some less massive pieces of armor, with his discarded helmut in the lower right corner of the composition.

 

The 1842 exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-colours also included watercolors by Hunt entitled A Trooper and A Frolicking Trooper. Although these are currently untraced, neither apparently having been sold since the time of the 1842 exhibition, they presumably are related to this single-figure watercolor. The term Trooper is a reference to members of Charles I's army during the English Revolution.

 

Hunt's friend and patron in Hastings, John Hornby Maw, kept a partial suit of armor on display in one of the rooms of his home, West Hill House. This armor can be seen in several of the views Hunt painted inside that room, including the large watercolor in the Hastings Museum and two smaller variations, one in Glasgow and the other in a private collection.

 

The use of color in the watercolor is somewhat unusual for Hunt, with the sharp contrasts between the cool metal and the warm items of yellow and orange-red clothing -- Hunt tended to use warm colors, but rarely are any as vibrant as the red he used in this painting. It may have been a choice based on the actual colors of the King's troops in mid-17th century Britain.

 

The piece of wooden furniture on which the boy rests his head looks very similar to the chest which appears in many of the artist's views of the interior of a shed at his father-in-law's farm. It is possible, even likely, that this watercolor was painted in that shed, with certain items added to give the appearance of a tavern. Hunt would only paint what he actually observed in front of him, which is one reason he employed John Swain so often as his model. Young Swain could apparently hold a pose for very long periods of time. John was listed as residing in London with Hunt and his family in the 1844 British Census. He probably had been living with Hunt during much of the 1830s and early 1840s, since he can be identified as the model in so many of Hunt's figurative watrcolors from those years. He undoubtedly would have accompanied the artist on his extended trips to the Holloway farm.

 

Dr. William Macturk, who likely owned this watercolor in 1868, was a physician from Bradford, England, who was consulted in connection with the treatment of Charlotte Brontë, the author, in 1855.

Done