An apple, grapes and a hazelnut on a mossy bank

1830–64

Not on view

Hunt worked mainly as a watercolorist and became renowned for his still lifes, which characteristically show natural elements such as birds’ nests, fruits, and nuts presented with a sense of heightened realism. This small, beautiful example centers on an apple with a distinctive flaw, a cluster of grapes, and a hazelnut still clad in its papery outer skin, all lying near a mossy bank. Hunt attended especially to the illusion of the surface qualities of these objects, while his approach to the background remained more suggestive. He rendered the powdery white bloom on the grapes with tiny dots of watercolor applied over a matte layer of Chinese white (zinc oxide), a technique that influenced a number of Pre-Raphaelite painters.

Artwork Details

Title: An apple, grapes and a hazelnut on a mossy bank
Artist: William Henry Hunt (British, London 1790–1864 London)
Date: 1830–64
Medium: Watercolor and graphite, heightened with white
Dimensions: Sheet: 3 11/16 × 5 1/8 in. (9.4 × 13 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013
Object Number: 2013.78
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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