A Graduate of Pomona
William Henry Hunt, Lettuce and Onions in a Basket, dated 1827
Lettuce and Onions in a Basket
Currently untraced
Watercolor and gum arabic heightened with white and with scratching out
Signed and date, l.r., Wm. HUNT 1827
This is the type of still life which Hunt was painting in the late 1820s through at least the late 1830s. The bright, colorful still life watercolors of fruit and flowers, often with bird's nests set against backgrounds of moss, grass, and leaf covered banks of soil, i.e., those innovative watercolors which resulted in Hunt's greatest fame and fortune and which most readily come to mind to persons familiar with his work, were not painted until rather late in Hunt's career -- approximately in the mid-1840s. But still life watercolors certainly made up a large portion of the artist's exhibited works soon after Hunt began to cut back in painting single rustic figures without narrative content of the type he painted during a few years in the mid-1820s. Even his early still lifes were innovative in subject and technique and certainly stood out as something very new when first seen on exhibit at the watercolor society. But they did not garner as much critical attention as the watercolors which were denegrated by Ruskin and largely ignored by the authors Country People catalogue: his destinctive, very popular images of children in mildly humorous situations, most commonly characterized as his comic figures.
William Henry Hunt, Lettuce and Onions in a Basket, dated 1827
Lettuce and Onions in a Basket
Currently untraced
Watercolor and gum arabic heightened with white and with scratching out
Signed and date, l.r., Wm. HUNT 1827
This is the type of still life which Hunt was painting in the late 1820s through at least the late 1830s. The bright, colorful still life watercolors of fruit and flowers, often with bird's nests set against backgrounds of moss, grass, and leaf covered banks of soil, i.e., those innovative watercolors which resulted in Hunt's greatest fame and fortune and which most readily come to mind to persons familiar with his work, were not painted until rather late in Hunt's career -- approximately in the mid-1840s. But still life watercolors certainly made up a large portion of the artist's exhibited works soon after Hunt began to cut back in painting single rustic figures without narrative content of the type he painted during a few years in the mid-1820s. Even his early still lifes were innovative in subject and technique and certainly stood out as something very new when first seen on exhibit at the watercolor society. But they did not garner as much critical attention as the watercolors which were denegrated by Ruskin and largely ignored by the authors Country People catalogue: his destinctive, very popular images of children in mildly humorous situations, most commonly characterized as his comic figures.