Description
Hunt was one of the first American artists to draw with charcoal rather than chalk or graphite pencil. In 1877, he visited North Easton, Massachusetts to paint a portrait of the financier and art patron, Oliver Ames. At this time Hunt made several drawings of the town of North Easton, viewed from across a millpond. This drawing portrays the scene around mid-afternoon.
William Morris Hunt (American, 1824–1879)
Provenance
[]
Accession Number
1943.327
Medium
charcoal; framing lines in charcoal
Dimensions
Sheet: 26.5 x 41.5 cm (10 7/16 x 16 5/16 in.); Image: 25.4 x 40.5 cm (10 x 15 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. G. Tappan Francis
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Charcoal American
Background & Context
Background Story
William Morris Hunt (1824-1879) was an American painter known for the atmospheric, Barbizon-influenced landscapes that make him one of the most important painters of the American Barbizon movement. North Easton, Massachusetts from 1877 depicts the Massachusetts landscape in the atmospheric, Barbizon-influenced manner that distinguishes Hunt's best work from the more detailed painting of his contemporaries. Hunt studied in Barbizon with Jean-Francois Millet, and his atmospheric, Barbizon-influenced landscapes introduced the Barbizon tradition to America, making Hunt one of the most influential American painters of the 19th century.
Cultural Impact
North Easton, Massachusetts is important in the history of American painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, Barbizon-influenced manner that Hunt brought to American landscape as one of the most important painters of the American Barbizon movement. Hunt's atmospheric, Barbizon-influenced landscapes—introducing the Barbizon tradition of atmospheric landscape painting to America—represent one of the most influential traditions in 19th-century American painting, and the 1877 painting shows this tradition at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
North Easton, Massachusetts is Hunt's atmospheric American Barbizon: the Massachusetts landscape rendered in the Barbizon-influenced manner of one of the most influential American painters of the 19th century. The 1877 painting shows the atmospheric, Barbizon tradition that Hunt introduced to America after studying with Millet in Barbizon.
