William Henry Hunt OWS Primroses

Signed l.r.: W HUNT, watercolour with bodycolour on artist’s board

16 x 20.3 cm; 6 1/4 x 8 inches

Primroses were a favourite subject of Hunt’s, and one which he frequently exhibited in the 1840s and 1850s.

Hunt was born with a deformation of his legs which restricted his movement and he worked mainly from the studio, as painting outside was difficult for him. He specialised in carefully drawn smale-scale still lifes like this one as a result and pioneered new techniques of watercolour, using stipple techniques in subtle colour combinations and achieving a brightness of colour by overlaying washes over white gouache.