Watercolor and gouache over graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Contemporary drawn border: 11 1/2 x 8 inches (29.2 x 20.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.3.862
Gallery Label:
In the 1820s and 1830s William Henry Hunt's watercolors of rustic figures, often sentimental or humorous in character, were extremely popular. This subject of a lady reading denotes a more genteel prosperity. The reader has been identified as the painter's wife. Hunt's careful rendering of textures celebrates the material comforts of the middle-class home and invites his own watercolor to be seen as the natural accompaniment to such refined surroundings. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
