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Lot Essay
The present watercolour is included in Ruskin's exhibition of Prout and Hunt at the Fine Art Society in 1879, where it is referred to by Ruskin as Mr Quilter's Stable Boy. Ruskin considered this type of watercolour as amongst the highest class of Hunt's work, 'Drawings illustrative of rural life in its vivacity and purity, without the slightest endeavour at idealisation ... All drawings belonging to this class are virtually faultless, and most of them very beautiful.' In addition Quilter op.cit. states, 'I remember Sir Frederick Burton saying many years ago to my father-perhaps in a fit of generous enthusiasm-that this is the finest water-colour in the world.'
During the late 1830s Hunt executed a series of works of barn interiors and outhouses. Hunt executed a watercolour of a similar interior with his wife as the model, entitled The Outhouse, (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) dated 1838 and illustrated in J. Witt, op.cit., p. 173, no. 321, pl. 15.
A similar watercolour showing a girl in a barn interior was sold Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1997, lot 113 (£51,000).
During the late 1830s Hunt executed a series of works of barn interiors and outhouses. Hunt executed a watercolour of a similar interior with his wife as the model, entitled The Outhouse, (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) dated 1838 and illustrated in J. Witt, op.cit., p. 173, no. 321, pl. 15.
A similar watercolour showing a girl in a barn interior was sold Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1997, lot 113 (£51,000).