An Apple, Grapes and a Hazelnut on a Mossy Bank

William Henry Hunt

1830–64 · Watercolor and graphite, heightened with white · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

William Henry Hunt

Date

1830–64

Medium

Watercolor and graphite, heightened with white

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013