Interior of a Barn

William Henry Hunt · c. 1837

This highly finished watercolor, one of William Henry Hunt’s largest, is technically astounding. At the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, it was an attraction that, according to one critic, “astonished our foreign visitors.” The setting is a barn owned by Hunt’s father-in-law, a farmer and miller, in Hampshire, England. Hunt achieved a jewellike texture and brilliant luminosity through his complicated technique of stippling transparent colors over a ground of opaque white gouache. This effect is particularly evident in the golden straw and two grain sacks. Also noteworthy is the range of browns discernible in the shadows of the barn.