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William Henry Hunt
(1790-1864)
A Lady drawing at a Desk
c.1825-35
Pencil and watercolour on paper
17.8 x 12.7 cm
Acquired by a Private Collector, UK
Provenance
W/S Fine Art Ltd / Andrew Wyld
Private Collection, USA
References
[1] William Makepeace Thackeray, writing in his 1839 “Second Lecture on the Fine Arts” for Fraser’s Magazine, declared: ‘If you want to see real nature, now, real expression, real startling home poetry, look at everyone of Hunt’s heads. Hogarth never painted anything better than these figures, taken singly.’ M.H. Spielman, The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, A Retrospect: 1804-1904, 1904, p.15
[2] John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol.I, 1843, p.133
[3] John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing: In Three Letters to Beginners, 1857, p.120
[4] John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol.I, 1843, p.11
[5] John Ruskin, Notes by Mr. Ruskin on Samuel Prout and William Hunt illustrated by a Loan Collection of Drawings exhibited at The Fine Art Society's Galleries, 148 New Bond Street, 1879-80, 1880, pp.19-20
[6] John Witt, William Henry Hunt (1790–1864): Life and Work, with a Catalogue, 1982,
pp.61-62
This captivating portrait of a lady drawing at her desk displays the mastery of William Henry Hunt’s graphic style and control of swift line. The expressive energy of weaving and zig-zagging strokes, animating the dress, desk, and interior, uniting light and shadow in motion, comes to a graceful pause at the figure’s head, where soft pencil shading defines the face and neck and delicate touches of watercolour sensitively describe her hair. [1] Here, the motion reverses, breaking the flow of curvilinear and hatched lines. ‘Its outlines are perpetually melting and appearing again, sharp here, vague there, now lost altogether, now just hinted and still confused among each other; and so for ever in a state and necessity of change.’ [2] John Ruskin, in his admiration for both ‘leading or governing lines’ [3] and for the ‘simplest lines...which can suggest the idea in its own naked beauty,’ greatly valued the economy and finesse in Hunt’s approach to shaping form. [4] Of Hunt’s work, he wrote, ‘I am aware of no other pieces of art, in modern days, at once so sincere and so accomplished...as implying the unbiased directness of aim at the realization of very simple facts.’ [5]
Over time, various names have been proposed, and in some cases conclusively identified, for the female figures in Hunt’s drawings, including his wife Sarah, their daughter Emma, his sister-in-law Maria, and a pupil named Miss Moore who lived on Cheyne Walk. While a few drawings are inscribed with the sitter's name, the majority are not. Upon the artist’s death in 1864, Ruskin, another former pupil of Hunt’s, wrote the following to his daughter Emma: ‘No one living of your father’s friends will mourn him more deeply than I - it was my pride, that I could recognise his unrivalled powers in art - and one of my chief happinesses that I could sometimes hope he took pleasure in my sympathy and admiration.’ [6]
William Henry Hunt
(1790-1864)
A Lady drawing at a Desk
c.1825-35
Pencil and watercolour on paper
17.8 x 12.7 cm
Acquired by a Private Collector, UK
Provenance
W/S Fine Art Ltd / Andrew Wyld
Private Collection, USA
References
[1] William Makepeace Thackeray, writing in his 1839 “Second Lecture on the Fine Arts” for Fraser’s Magazine, declared: ‘If you want to see real nature, now, real expression, real startling home poetry, look at everyone of Hunt’s heads. Hogarth never painted anything better than these figures, taken singly.’ M.H. Spielman, The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, A Retrospect: 1804-1904, 1904, p.15
[2] John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol.I, 1843, p.133
[3] John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing: In Three Letters to Beginners, 1857, p.120
[4] John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol.I, 1843, p.11
[5] John Ruskin, Notes by Mr. Ruskin on Samuel Prout and William Hunt illustrated by a Loan Collection of Drawings exhibited at The Fine Art Society's Galleries, 148 New Bond Street, 1879-80, 1880, pp.19-20
[6] John Witt, William Henry Hunt (1790–1864): Life and Work, with a Catalogue, 1982,
pp.61-62
This captivating portrait of a lady drawing at her desk displays the mastery of William Henry Hunt’s graphic style and control of swift line. The expressive energy of weaving and zig-zagging strokes, animating the dress, desk, and interior, uniting light and shadow in motion, comes to a graceful pause at the figure’s head, where soft pencil shading defines the face and neck and delicate touches of watercolour sensitively describe her hair. [1] Here, the motion reverses, breaking the flow of curvilinear and hatched lines. ‘Its outlines are perpetually melting and appearing again, sharp here, vague there, now lost altogether, now just hinted and still confused among each other; and so for ever in a state and necessity of change.’ [2] John Ruskin, in his admiration for both ‘leading or governing lines’ [3] and for the ‘simplest lines...which can suggest the idea in its own naked beauty,’ greatly valued the economy and finesse in Hunt’s approach to shaping form. [4] Of Hunt’s work, he wrote, ‘I am aware of no other pieces of art, in modern days, at once so sincere and so accomplished...as implying the unbiased directness of aim at the realization of very simple facts.’ [5]
Over time, various names have been proposed, and in some cases conclusively identified, for the female figures in Hunt’s drawings, including his wife Sarah, their daughter Emma, his sister-in-law Maria, and a pupil named Miss Moore who lived on Cheyne Walk. While a few drawings are inscribed with the sitter's name, the majority are not. Upon the artist’s death in 1864, Ruskin, another former pupil of Hunt’s, wrote the following to his daughter Emma: ‘No one living of your father’s friends will mourn him more deeply than I - it was my pride, that I could recognise his unrivalled powers in art - and one of my chief happinesses that I could sometimes hope he took pleasure in my sympathy and admiration.’ [6]