THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY Burlington fine Erts Club. EXHIBITION ALFRED WILLIAM HUNT, Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. • '■•'■'-Tv j, $3 1 y l I PRINTED FOR THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB. •>. . Afk -l v LONDON: LINC 1897. Burlington jfine Hrts Club. EXHIBITION OF BY ALFRED WILLIAM HUNT, Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB. EXHIBITION COMMITTEE. W. A. S. Benson, Esq. Cosmo Monkhouse, Esq. John L. Roget, Esq. H. Virtue Tebbs, Esq. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Mrs. Wm. C. Alexander. Mrs. Alfred Backhouse. James E. Backhouse, Esq. Mrs. William Bateson. Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart. *W. A. S. Benson, Esq. George Birkett, Esq. W. S. Caine, Esq. Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P. Thomas P. Cobb, Esq. Norman C. Cookson, Esq. Captain A. W. Cotton. Mrs. Dobson. Mrs. Fogg-Elliott. * Wickham Flower, Esq. Mrs. Fordham. Rev. Canon Greenwell. W. F. Henderson, Esq. J. Arthur Kenrick, Esq. * William Kenrick, Esq., M.P. Rev. W. Kingsley. William Latham, Esq. The Corporation of Liverpool. *Charles W. Mitchell, Esq, Mrs. Mole. Gilbert W. Moss, Esq. Andrew Muir, Esq. H. F. Newall, Esq. * William Newall, Esq. Mrs. Newall. Professor D. Oliver, F.R.S. Sir Thomas Paine. Mrs. Benson Rathbone. ^Humphrey Roberts, Esq. Colonel C. Rowlandson. Frederick Ryland, Esq. Miss Flora M. Smith. A. E. Street, Esq. Henry Tate, Esq. *H. Virtue Tebbs, Esq. The Contributors whose names are thus marked are Members of the Club. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/exhibitionofdrawOOmonk ALFRED WILLIAM HUNT, R.W.S. LFRED WILLIAM HUNT was born at Liverpool, on November the 15th, 1830. He was educated at the Collegiate School in that city, and gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi, Oxford, in 1848. He won the Newdigate (the subject being “Nineveh”) in 1851, took his degree in 1852 with second class honours in classics, and was made a Fellow of his college in 1853, the rule, then universal for Fellows, of taking Orders, being relaxed in his favour. He had already begun to paint, and had for some years belonged to the Liverpool Academy. At Oxford he received encouragement from Mr. James Wyatt, the well-known printseller, who bought his drawings and ultimately gave him a commission to paint in Wales. He had exhibited at Liverpool and at the Portland Gallery before 1854, when he made his first appearance at the Royal Academy with an oil-picture of “ Wastdale Head from Styhead Pass,” and in 1856 he attracted attention by one of “Stream from Llyn Idwal, Carnarvonshire,” which was hung on the line and much praised by Air. Ruskin. The hanging of his pictures next year called forth comments from Mr. Ruskin which are said to have been prejudicial to the artist’s fortunes at the Academy. He continued to exhibit there at intervals till 1862, when he was elected an Associate of the (now Royal) Society of Painters in Water-Colours, to which he became a regular contributor, and was made a full Member in 1864. For about seven years he worked in water-colours only, but in 1870 he again exhibited at the Royal Academy, and continued to do so occasionally till within a few years of his death. VI. In 1 86 1 Hunt married a daughter of Dr. Raine, of Durham, the well-known antiquary. They settled temporarily at Durham, and came to London four years later, where they took up their residence on Campden Hill, Kensington, in a house which had been occupied previously by Mr. J. C. Hook, R.A., and Mr. Holman Hunt. It was there that Hunt died on the 3rd of May in last year. Such is the bare skeleton of the life of Alfred William Hunt, one of the most poetical landscape painters of the British School. It is in no common sense that he may be said to have devoted his life to art, for his devotion to it was little less than religious. Of an unusually sensitive temperament, early imbued with the spirit of Ruskin’s teaching, and sympathising with the aims of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, he held a lofty ideal of the function of the artist, and regarded all the mighty and beautiful phenomena of nature as manifestations of the divine. With this high spiritual impressionism he united an intense desire for exact truth of presentation. To one so minded the cultivation of his artistic power was of the greatest importance, but the expression of the feeling which nature inspired was always a dearer object than any exhibition of technical skill. Like other artists he painted with his senses and his brains, but, more than most, he painted with his soul. He was not destitute, however, of a just ambition, and his admirers, who, if not many in number, were earnest almost to enthusiasm, found it hard to understand why such exquisite, sincere, and indeed almost unique work should fail to secure for him the honours of the Academy. It may be some consolation for them to feel that his want of success in this particular direction was largely due to his finest qualities. The subtlety and modesty of his works prevented them from showing to advantage when surrounded by others painted up to “ Exhibition pitch,” while the spirituality of their aim was lost on most of their beholders. On the other Vll. hand, he achieved a much more noble and enduring success in keeping steadily through life to a high and pure ideal of his art, and in setting an example much needed, of truth without vulgarity, of originality without pretence, and of intensity without affectation. The drawings now exhibited contain a lame number of his very finest, and fairly represent his work in water-colour from 1855 to 1892. It would be waste labour to say much about them in this preface. They speak for themselves ; not only of their method, but, to those who can appreciate them, of those subjective qualities to which I have referred. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the collection as a whole is the variety of subject, of effect and of design. Even when Hunt dealt with such favourite subjects as “ Whitby,” or “ Durham,” he always varied the point of view, or transfigured them by some new effect. He belongs, as will be seen, to what may be called the Turneresque section of British art, having little sympathy with that more robust rendering of familiar effects which is the characteristic of Constable and . his school. Like Turner, he was essentially a painter of the sky, of the sun, and the mist, seeking to realise those effects of solemnity and grandeur, of mystery and peace, which have most power over the deepest human feeling. He felt the peace that is among the lonely hills, and his heart leapt up, like Wordsworth’s, when he beheld a rainbow in the sky. He felt, as few feel, the glories of sunset, and was thrilled even by the yellow leap of the furnace-flame. So he always painted the difficult — strove, indeed, to paint the unpaintable, with endless strife and no little suffering. Had he been less sensitive, less highly-strung, less lofty and eager in his aims, he might have lived longer ; but he would not have painted the pictures on our walls. COSMO MONKHOUSE. CATALOGUE. The dates are in some cases conjectural. Exhibitions referred to are those of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. Inscriptions copied from the drawings are placed within inverted commas. The measurements are in inches (the height preceding the width) and do not include the frame or mount. 1 LUCERNE. [i860.] 9 y 2 by 12 y 2 . Lent by W. Nerval l, Esq. 2 THE UPPER LLUGWY. 10 yi by I4 A- Lent by IV. S. Caine , Esq. 3 KYLE RHEA. (Between Skye and the main land.) [Exhibited 1868-9.] by 14T Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. 4 RAIN STORM PASSING OVER DURHAM. “ A. W. H.” [1882.] 9^4 by 1 5)^. Lent by W. S. Caine , Esq. 5 HARLECH CASTLE. “ A. W. H.” [1857.] 9 by 12^. Lent by JV. Latham, Esq. 6 STOCKGILL, AMBLESIDE. [1864. Exhibited 1865.] 14 ^ by 10 ^ 4 . Lent by A. E. Street , Esq. 7 LUCERNE. (Compare No. 1 16.) [1859-60.] 12^4 by 19)4. Lent by Norman C. Cookson, Esq. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 2 LOCH CORUISK. “A. W. Hunt, 1869.” [Exhibited 1869-70.] 23^ by 35 Lent by C. W. Mitchell , Esq. HEIDELBERG. [i860.] io]/& by 16. Lent by Mrs. Neivall. TYNEMOUTH PIER, NORTH-EAST WIND. “ A. W. Hunt, 1865.” [Exhibited 1865-6.] 10^3 by 14^3. Lent by W. Newall, Esq. A SULLEN-LOOKING NIGHT AT WHITBY. BOATS LEAVING. “ A. W. Hunt, 1881.” [Exhibited 1881.] 9^3 by 14. Lent by Andrew Muir, Esq. ST. GOTHARD. TWO BRIDGES. [i860. Exhibited 1863.] 13^ by 10. Lent by W. Newall, Esq. MORTHAM TOWER, ROKEBY. [1862. Exhibited 1863.] 10^2 by 15^. Lent by W. Newall , Esq. BARNARD CASTLE. “ A. W. Hunt.” [1862. Exhibited 1869-70.] io^ by 14^. Lent by W. Newall, Esq. DU ART CASTLE. “ A. W. H. 73.” [1869. Exhibited 1869-70.] 7 by 14^. Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. OFF THE MOREA. [1872. Exhibited 1873.] 10^ by 21^. Lent by Mrs. Nezuall. TAPPING BLAST FURNACES. [1863. Exhibited 1864.] 10 by 13^3. Lent by Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart. ON THE GRETA. 7/4 by 10. Lent by C. IV. Mitchell , Esq. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3 ROKEBY. [1881.] 9 y z by 14^3. Lent by H. Tate , Esq. STREATLEY, AFTERNOON. “A. W. H., 1870.” [Exhibited 1872.] 8^j by 14. Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. KINLOCH EWE, LOCH MAREE. “ A. W. Hunt, 1878.” [Exhibited 1883.] 9% by 13%. Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. MINER’S PATH, NEAR CONISTOxN. “ A. W. Hunt, 1873.” [Exhibited 1874.] 14 by liy&. Lent by J. E. Backhouse , Esq. KATZ CASTLE, RHINE. [1859.] by 14#. Lent by W. S. Caine , Esq. PONT-Y-GELLI. (BRIDGE OF THE HAZELS). [Exhibited 1874.] 10^4 by 14 Lent by IV. New all, Esq. THE STILLNESS OF THE LAKE AT DAWN, CONISTON. “A. W. H., 1873.” [Exhibited 1874.] 10 by 13^4. Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. OBERWESEL, SUMMER TWILIGHT. [1859. Exhibited 1862.] 9)^ by 15. Lent by IV. Newall, Esq. RAINBOW. “A. W. H., 1866.” (Compare No. 102.) 13 by 20^. Lent by H. Roberts , Esq. SNOWDON. [1857-] 13 # by 19^. Lent by the Rev. W. Kingsley. CLOVELLY. [1857. Exhibited 1864-5.] 8 by 11. Lent by IT. Virtue Tebbs, Esq. BAMBOROUGH CASTLE, MOONLIGHT. [1871.] 93/8 by 14^. Lent by W. N avail, Esq. 4 31 WHITBY HARBOUR. TIDE OUT. io by 15. Lent by Frederick Ryland, Esq. 32 THE “ CRAZY JANE ” AT WHITBY. LATE AFTERNOON. “A. W. Hunt, 1875.” (Compare Nos. 105 and 122.) 9 "/ ' : Ml ';; : ' • ' ./ /* • :, 'JPW& ty< " ■? ■' * • ■ liMr. ’$(*■; ; <■; V> :r » ■ .'■•v'’ . >• * .?3 .■■■■•. ';'-y :;...., : • GETTY CENTER LIBRARY W 497 H93 E96 C 1 Morwhouse, Hllllw c txMBltlon of drawings in water colour o MAIN 3 3125 00284 3643