William Henry Hunt, A Marine Effect, Exhibited 1838

A Marine Effect

Private collection

Watercolor and bodycolor with scratching out

16 3/4 X 12 1/2 in., 42.5 x 31,5 cm.

Inscribed on verso, W Hunt/6 Marchmont St Russell Square.

 

Provenance:

Lady Rolle, by whom purchased at the 1838 Spring Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and thence by discent until 1980;

(S) Sotheby's Bearne, Torquay, 23 July 1980, Lot 260 [as A Marine Effect] (P) £740*, $1,764*;

Hammond Smith collection by 1981;

(S) Christie's London, 16 March 1982, Lot 103 [as A Marine Effect, Margate)] (P) £972, $1,621*;

(S) Sotheby's London, 15 March 1984, Lot 203 (P) Bought in;

(S) Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, England, 30 Oct 1985, Lot 217 [as A Marine Effect, Margate] (P) £680*, $979*;

(S) Christie's London, 18 March 1986, Lot 114 (P) £1,620, $2,215* by the present owner.

 

Exhibited:

1838, London, Society of Painters in Water-colours, Spring Exhibition, No. 49;

1981-1982, English traveling Hunt exhibition, No. , lent by Hammond Smith

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

 

Inscribed on verso: " 6 Marchmant [sic[ St. Russel Square" "A Marine Effect, Watercolour Exhibition 1838"

 

At Last! A watercolor by Hunt which actually is humorous and therefore worthy of being engraved and published as part of the book, Hunt's Comic Sketches. Here we have a boy and his mother sitting on the side of a boat. We are given a hint that they might be on an excursion cruise out of Margate, England - as shown by the title of the book down on the deck in front of the figures. The mother is comforting her son because he is seasick. A "marine effect. Get it? An effect of being on boats, for some, is sea sickness.

 

While the title is humorous enough when considered along with an image of sea sickness, the ironic humor that Hunt undoubtedly intended was the fact that he is mocking the pretentious titles for paintings that were just coming into vogue among avant garde artists in England and France. Loosely executed (or, as John Ruskin characterized them, unfinished) works were publicly exhibited under names such as "Nocturne," or "An Effect", or, most famously, a few decades later, "An Impression, Sunrise." Hunt took one such discription and used it more literally, all in good fun, undoubtedly, but also getting some milage for his own fledgling career as a painter of minutely described comic figures at the expense of these other contemporary artists who thought of their works in more poetic manners.

 

It is rather ironic that Hunt's champion, John Ruskin, was sued over a "Nocturne" by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, now in Detroit. Ruskin said in a review that Whistler was flinging a pot of paint in the public's face by passing off such a minimalistic painting of colors (ostensibly representing fireworks) against a dark background as a finished work of art (Actually, it does look rather finished by today's standards, but who paints like Bellini these days?) One has to wonder what Ruskin would think about the "progression" of art since his and Whistler's day. But if it only cost Ruskin a farthing per critical slam, it sure would be fun to hear what the great writer could come up with! We know for certain, however, that Ruskin did not appreciate Hunt's humorous works, which he publicly denounced as being dishonorable to the artist.

Done