A Graduate of Pomona
16. William Henry Hunt, The Stonebreaker, dated 1833
The Stonebreaker
London, Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours No. RWS.PB.36
Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic with scratching out
14 1/8 x 9 7/8 in., 35.8 X 25,2
Signed and dated, l.r., W. HUNT 1833
The subject matter of this badly faded watercolor is as close as William Henry Hunt ever got to social realism. It should be noted that this disturbing image was painted years before the stonebrakers of Gustave Corbet (1849) and John Brett (1857), and decades before Jean-François Millet's similar but more dehumanized Man with a Hoe (1860-62). But it is very unlikely that Hunt intended any politic or social commentary. He was merely painting a man who either was actually engaged in the act of stone reaking or posed to appear as a worker engaged in such a little respected occupation.
The Courtauld authors, following information that appears in Sir John Witt's monograph, identify Ralph Bernal as an early owner of this watercolor. If the catalogue for the 1853 auction of the Bernal collection is accurate, however, the pictures cannot be the same. Bernal's watercolor had the dimensions of 12 1/2 X 17 inches, significant larger than the RWS picture. And, if the custom of listing height before width was followed in the auction catalogue, Bernal's watercolor, entitled The Old Stonebreaker, was horizontal in format. As stated earlier, it is not safe to identify Hunt's pictures on the basis of titles alone.
16. William Henry Hunt, The Stonebreaker, dated 1833
The Stonebreaker
London, Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours No. RWS.PB.36
Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic with scratching out
14 1/8 x 9 7/8 in., 35.8 X 25,2
Signed and dated, l.r., W. HUNT 1833
The subject matter of this badly faded watercolor is as close as William Henry Hunt ever got to social realism. It should be noted that this disturbing image was painted years before the stonebrakers of Gustave Corbet (1849) and John Brett (1857), and decades before Jean-François Millet's similar but more dehumanized Man with a Hoe (1860-62). But it is very unlikely that Hunt intended any politic or social commentary. He was merely painting a man who either was actually engaged in the act of stone reaking or posed to appear as a worker engaged in such a little respected occupation.
The Courtauld authors, following information that appears in Sir John Witt's monograph, identify Ralph Bernal as an early owner of this watercolor. If the catalogue for the 1853 auction of the Bernal collection is accurate, however, the pictures cannot be the same. Bernal's watercolor had the dimensions of 12 1/2 X 17 inches, significant larger than the RWS picture. And, if the custom of listing height before width was followed in the auction catalogue, Bernal's watercolor, entitled The Old Stonebreaker, was horizontal in format. As stated earlier, it is not safe to identify Hunt's pictures on the basis of titles alone.