William Henry Hunt

An oyster shell and an onion

Auction Closed

July 7, 10:53 AM GMT

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Collection of the late Cyril and Shirley Fry

William Henry Hunt

London 1790 - 1864

An oyster shell and an onion

Watercolour and bodycolour;

signed lower right: W Hunt

123 by 167 mm

John Ruskin (1819-1900), for whom the work was painted;
James Orrock (1829-1913);
Sir William H. Lever, Bt, 1^st Viscount Leverhulme (1851-1925),
presented by him to a 'Red Cross Sale', London, Christie's, 16 April 1915, lot 615;
A.A.L. Passingham,
Miss N. Armitage,
her sale, London, Christie's, 14 October 1969, lot 101;
Cyril and Shirley Fry, by 1981

J.L. Roget, A History of the Old Water-Colour Society, vol. II, London 1891, p. 196;
J. Witt, William Henry Hunt (1790-1864). Life and Work, London 1982, pp. 11, 54, 202, no. 634, pl. 27

London, Old Watercolour Society, 1859, no. 226;
London, Earls Court, The Victorian Era Exhibition, 1897;
London, The Fine Art Society, The Fine Art Society's Exhibition, 1901, no. 92;
London, The Fry Gallery, Watercolours and Drawings from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Cyril Fry, 1981;
London, Royal Academy, The Great Age of British Watercolours 1750-1880, 1993, no. 371

Dating from 1859, the present still-life is one of a small number that Hunt painted for his friend John Ruskin and that he exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society's annual exhibition between 1856 and 1861.

The work seems to have stretched Hunt to his limits, as he is recorded as exclaiming: 'How difficult it is to paint this oyster-shell'. Ruskin, however, always gave Hunt his full (and influential) backing, once writing that he did not know of 'another man in the Old Water-Colour Society with so keen an eye for truth or with power so universal.’¹

1. Witt, op. cit., pp. 53-54