William Henry Hunt, The Dining Room at Cashiobury Park, dated 1821

The Dining Room at Cashiobury Park

Watford, England, The Watford Museum.

Ink, watercolor, and gum arabic

9 2/3 X 13 1/4 in., 24 X 34 cm.

Signed

 

Provenance:

The Estate of the late William Hunt, (S) Christie's London, 1864 X;

Crofts;

(S) Christie's, London, 14 Nov 1995, Lot 70 [as The Winter Dining Room of the Earl of Essex at Cassiobury] (P) Bought in;

(S) 1995 fpr £11,763 to the Watford Museum with a contribution of £2,500 from the Art Fund of Britain.

 

Hunt painted a small number of interior views of Cashiobury House, using a stippling technique which was more refined than what was used in his rustic figures of the time. Hunt exhibited these works and asked a significantly higher price for them than he did for the gamekeepers and gardeners he submitted to the same exhibitions in the 1820s. None seem to have sold, since they were included in the artist's estate sale over 40 years later.

 

If Hunt used a camera obscura in composing his works, which is very likely, it would have been in connection with architectural views such as this rather than any of his single figure or still life compositions.

Done