William Henry Hunt, The Toilet, aka, Preparing for the Soiree, Exhibited 1844

The Toilet, Preparing for the Soiree

Private collection

Watercolor, bodycolor, and gum arabic with scratching out

22 X 16 3/4 in., 56 X 42.5 cm.

Signed, l.l., W. HUNT

 

Provenance:

Albert Hall, by 1857;

James Fallows;

William Cosier (S) Christie's, London, 14 April 1894, Lot 147 (P) £152 Gooden;

Gooden (S) 16 April 1894 (P) £157 10s. Arthur Tooth & Co.;

Arthur Tooth & Co. (S) 18 Jan 1895 (P) Roberts;

T. Humphrey Roberts

(S) Sotheby's, London, 16 July 1987, Lot 113 [as Preparing for the Soiree] (P) £4,620, $6,848* by the present owner.

 

Exhibited:

Spring 1844, London, Society of Painters in Water-Colours, No. 92, as The Toilet;

1857, Manchester, England, Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, No. 521. as Peparing for the Soiree, lent by Albert Hall.

 

If not for the fact that is is considerably larger, this watercolor by William Henry Hunt would be the perfect companion for The Barber, painted a few years earlier. It shows a young lady, freshly bathed but still getting prepared for her night out. An older woman standing over her is using a curling iron on her hair, much to her obvious discomfort. One contemporary art critic noted that the tightness of the torturer's grasp on the iron is reflected in her pursed lips . On the floor, next to the soapy water in her tub are the implements already used (soap, etc.) and the red shoes she will slip into after her other preparations are complete. This painting was later known as Preparing for the Soiree, perhaps to make the meaning of all this commotion even clearer. Hunt's humor was its broadest in paintings such as this, which were loved by the public and hated by art critics.

Done