biografía de William Morris HUNT (1824-1879)

Lugar de nacimiento: Brattleboro, VT

Lugar de defunción: Appledore, Isle of Shoals, NH

Direcciones: Boston

Profesión: Portrait, figurative, genre, and mural painter, cameo portraitist

Estudios: Attended Harvard College for a short time but went to Europe before he graduated. Spent some time in France and Italy, then studied for a year at Düsseldorf. From 1847-53, he studied with Thomas Couture at Paris studio. From 1853-55, he studied with Millet at Barbizon.

Exposiciones: Paris Salon, 1852, 1853, 1855, 1867; NAD, 1861-72 (6 annuals); Brooklyn AA, 1872; Boston AC, 1873-84; AIC; PAFA, 1883, 1905 (deceased); BMFA, 1979 (retrospective); Essex Inst., 1981; Richardson-Clarke Gal., Boston, 1996 (drawings)

Asociaciones: ANA

Obra: TMA; BMFA; PAFA

Comentarios: Hunt was Boston's leading portrait painter from 1850-70. During his years (1847-56) in France, Hunt became a close friend of Millet and immersed himself in the Barbizon philosophy and method of painting. More than any other artist he was responsible for spreading the influence of Millet and the French Barbizon school in the U.S. Upon his return to America in 1856 he continued in this way, painting rustic scenes in the spirit of Millet and creating softly rendered figurative works and quiet, hazy landscapes. After working for a few years in Newport (RI), Brattleboro (VT), and in the Azores, Hunt finally settled in Boston in 1862. There he began to move into portraiture, receiving many commissions from prominent social and literary types of Boston. He also became an very important teacher, conducting classes in Boston by 1868, largely attended by women whose careers he firmly championed. He influenced many artists, including Winslow Homer. Beginning in 1872, Hunt struggled with personal setbacks and tragedies, one of which was the Boston fire of 1872 which destroyed his studio and personal collection of art, including his treasured Millet paintings. In 1878 he was commissioned to paint two murals for the State Capitol at Albany (NY), one of which was his well-known "The Flight of Night." Although these murals received acclaim, funding was ultimately vetoed, leaving Hunt depressed and, perhaps, leading him to suicide. Shortly after this, Hunt drowned while visiting Celia Thaxter on the Isle of Shoals, off the New Hampshire coast, on November 8, 1879. His significance in American art went beyond his painting abilities; his promotion of American art and more particularly, Barbizon painting, helped to encourage patronage of native artists in the United States. He was the brother of the architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Fuentes: G&W; DAB; His teaching philosophy is captured in Helen Knowlton's volumes Talks on Art (1875, 1883) and her Life of William M. Hunt (1899); Shannon, The Boston Days of William Morris Hunt; Chapin, Cameo Portraiture in America; NYBD 1854; Cowdrey, NAD; Swan, BA; Wilson, Lincoln in Portraiture; Thieme-Becker, biblio. More recently, see Baigell, Dictionary; Pierce & Slautterback, 175; exh. cat., Essex Inst., Wm. M. Hunt and the Summer Colony at Magnolia, Mass., 1876-1879 (1981); Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 359; Falk, Exh. Record Series.