William Henry Hunt, Juvenile Palmistry [The Fortune Tellers], Exhibited 1839

Juvenile Palmistry [The Fortune Tellers]

Private collection

Watercolor and bodycolor with scratching out

28 1/4 X 20 1/4 in., 72 X 51.5 cm.

Signed, l.l., W. HUNT

 

Provenance:

Charles Oddie of Liverpool (S) Christie's London, 18 March 1854, Lot 108 (P) £65 2s. Gambart;

Charles Birch of Mitchley Abbey, Birmingham (S) Fosters London, 27 Feb 1856, Lot 31 (P) 53 gns. Agnew;

Adam Fairrie of Rosemont, Liverpool (S) Christie's London (P) 16 March 1861, Lot 127 (P) Bought In;

Charles Suthers of Rivers Vale, Ashton-under-Lyne (P) Christie's London, 29 April 1896, Lot 22 (P) 175 gns Agnew;

B. Hardwick;

(S) Christie's London, 28 May 1904, Lot 38;

Blackburn, England, Richard Haworth (dealer);

Stanley W. Fisher;

Mrs. Stanley Fisher (S) Sotheby's London, 17 Nov 1988, Lot 175 (as The Fortune Teller) (P) £8,200* by the present owner.

 

Exhibited:

1839, London, Society of Painters in Water-colours, Spring Exhibition, No. 67 (as Juvenile Palmistry);

1990, San Marino, CA, The Huntington Library, Art Galleries, and Botanical Gardens, "Rustic Life in Victorian Britain: The Watercolors of William Henry Hunt.

 

Literature:

The Art Journal, May 1839, p. 72;

The Spectator, 4 May 1839, p. 423;

The Art Journal, 1856, p. 115;

Stanley W. Fisher, A Dictionary of Watercolour Painters 1750-1900, 1972, p. 140 (illustrated opposite p. 140).

 

William Henry Hunt painted about a dozen large watercolors in the late 1830s (all approximately 30 X 20 inches). This one (under its original title, Juvenile Palmistry) was also submitted by Hunt to the 1839 spring exhibition of the Watercolour Society. The model for the boy figure is clearly John Swain, but the identities off the two girl models are uncertain. See discussion under The Sisters for possible identification of the girl models.

 

At £60 this was probably the watercolor for which Hunt personally asked the highest price during his career.

Done