Sunset at Whitby: a sketch

This present drawing pays homage to Turner, the painter par excellence of sunsets. However, while The Two Rainbows (lot 138) recalls his more finished watercolours, the present study emulates his handling of the medium at its most spontaneous.

Whitby is one of Hunt's favourite and most familiar subjects. No fewer than five accounts of the abbey and harbour were included in the Fuller Collection sale; Christie's, London, 7 April 2000, lots 24-28. All were considerably more finished than the present sketch, but while they gave more information they lacked the poetic intensity of this rapid summary of a fleeting effect of light.