William Morris Hunt

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Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 1866

William Morris Hunt (born March 31, 1824 in Brattleboro , Vermont , † September 8, 1879 in Appledore , Isles of Simals, New Hampshire ) was an American landscape and portrait painter . He belongs to the Vermont family Hunt .

Life

William Morris Hunt, around 1875

William Morris Hunt was the second of five children to wealthy Congressman Jonathan Hunt and his wife Maria Jane Leavitt. His mother came from an influential Connecticut family . After the early death of his father, he grew up with his siblings, including his younger brother Richard , in Switzerland and France . In 1844/1845 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and later in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris under the well-known French painter Thomas Couture . His landscape painting in Barbizon was heavily influenced by the painter Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon School . Karl Bodmer bought his house in Barbizon in 1856 at 40, rue Grande for 4000 francs; the house is still preserved as an extension to a hotel. In 1855 Hunt returned to America and opened an art school in Boston . There he introduced open-air painting and was instrumental in bringing art studies in Paris into fashion, a tradition that is still maintained today. The painter Walter Gay was one of his students . Hunt was elected an Associate Member ( ANA ) of the National Academy of Design in 1871 .

William Morris Hunt drowned on September 8, 1879 between New Hampshire and Maine (Isles of Shoals) and was buried on Appledore Island .

In 1872 a great fire raged in Boston, and many paintings and sketches by William Morris Hunt were lost. Five paintings by his teacher and friend Jean-François Millet, which he had brought back from France, also fell victim to the flames.

Works (selection)

  • Girl at the Fountain , oil on canvas, around 1852–1854

  • Family Group , oil on canvas, around 1861

  • Niagara Falls , oil on canvas, 1878

  • The Rapids, Sister Island, Niagara , oil on canvas, 1878

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. No. 6218 in the finding aid 212.01.04 Student lists of the Art Academy Düsseldorf , website in the portal archive.nrw.de ( Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen )
  2. ^ Nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "H" / Hunt, William Morris ANA 1871 ( Memento April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed June 26, 2015)

Autobiography

  • William Morris Hunt: On Painting and Drawing , Dover Publications (1976)

literature

Web links

Commons : William Morris Hunt  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Hunt, William Morris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Brattleboro , Vermont
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1879
Place of death Appledore , Isles of Simals, New Hampshire