Cottages in an extensive landscape

late 1820s

Not on view

Hunt’s career forms a bridge between English watercolor painting of the later eighteenth century, and Victorian masters such as John Frederick Lewis, Myles Birket Foster and the Pre-Raphaelites. At sixteen, he began a seven-year apprenticeship with John Varley, became a sketching companion of fellow student John Linnell, and took classes at the Royal Academy Schools. Most significantly, Hunt joined the circle of young artists who gathered on winter evenings at the London house of Dr. Thomas Monro to copy drawings by Canaletto and John Robert Cozens—and made summer visits to his patron's house near Bushey in Hertfordshire. The hilly landscape in this beautifully fresh early watercolor may lie near the latter. Within a landscape evoked by freely applied washes, architectural forms are used to add definition. Reed pen, which Hunt had mastered by copying Canaletto, adds defining lines to the soft washes evoking field and foliage beneath a rapidly moving summer sky. Ruskin admired Hunt, collected his work, and suggested in 1859 that in "the particular gifts of colour there are only one or two of the Pre-Raphaelites and William Hunt of the Old Water-Colour Society who would be safe guides. And as quite a safe guide, there is nobody but William Hunt."

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

References

Title: Cottages in an extensive landscape
Artist: William Henry Hunt (British, London 1790–1864 London)
Date: late 1820s
Medium: Reed pen, ink and watercolor over traces of graphite
Dimensions: Sheet: 12 15/16 in. × 19 in. (32.8 × 48.3 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2018
Object Number: 2018.677
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By William Henry Hunt

In the same medium

From the same time and place

A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.

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 (?)

An apple, grapes and a hazelnut on a mossy bank, William Henry Hunt British, Watercolor and graphite, heightened with white — An apple, grapes and a hazelnut on a mossy bank
William Henry Hunt
1830–64

The Gamekeeper

William Henry Hunt

1824–25

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.