William Henry Hunt

Bird's Nest, Victorian 19th Century Royal Academy Oil

William Henry Hunt was a painter and watercolorist of fruit and flowers, landscapes and rustic genre. Hunt’s works influenced many Victorian artists. His parents decided on an artistic career for him, due to a deformity in his legs, which made it difficult for him to walk. He was apprenticed to John Varley in about 1804, and one of his fellow pupils was John Linnell. The two artists liked each other's work and went on sketching tours together, including one to Hastings in 1809. In 1807, Hunt began to exhibit oils at the RA and in 1808 entered RA schools. By 1815, he had set up on his own as a rustic and architectural painter. Hunt was elected to the ARWS in 1824 and the Old Watercolour Society in 1826. From about 1827, he began to paint fruit and flowers and candlelight scenes. Over the years his technique also changed. Using body-color, he developed an individual method of hatching and stippling over a white ground, similar to that of Myles Birket Foster.