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

More Artwork

By William Henry Hunt

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Study of a Young Model, William Henry Hunt British, Watercolor over graphite with reductive techniques — Study of a Young Model
William Henry Hunt
ca. 1830

The Woodcutter's Breakfast (The Faggot Gatherer's Meal), William Henry Hunt British, Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite — The Woodcutter's Breakfast (The Faggot Gatherer's Meal)
William Henry Hunt
ca. 1832–34 (?)

Fishermen's cottages at Hastings, William Henry Hunt British, Watercolor — Fishermen's cottages at Hastings
William Henry Hunt
1815–25

The Gamekeeper

William Henry Hunt

1824–25

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