1824 - 1879 • American • Painter • Realist
"When I look at nature I think of Millet, Corot, and sometimes of Daubigny." - William Morris Hunt
As Hunt's comment, quoted above, suggests, he was strongly affected by painters of the BARBIZON SCHOOL. That followed a period of studying sculpture at the art academy in DOSSELDORF, where he learned to fix on detail, and of instruction in painting in Paris with COUTURE, who placed strong emphasis on the importance of the rough sketch, or ebauche, which remained visible on the canvas despite thick paint and layers of GLAZE. On visiting and working with MILLET, Hunt took up the Barbizon inspired interest in peasant subjects. His best-known work, The Belated Kid ( 1857), is in the Barbizon mode of painting directly from nature, painting outdoors, rather than in the studio, and giving a rural subject the sense of quiet, religious dignity. This tranquil picture shows a barefoot girl holding a kid while its mother nuzzles it. Returning home in 1855, Hunt introduced French painting to America and became Boston's most prominent artist, teacher, and adviser to collectors. His students included LA FARGE and both William and Henry James. Things went badly for William Hunt during the 1870s, however. The Boston fire of 1872 destroyed his studio, and he and his wife separated the following year. Five years later his work for the New York State Capitol in Albany was unenthusiastically received. Depressed, Hunt died by drowning in November 1879. His younger brother was the architect Richard Morris HUNT.
