I have never been so undecided over whether to buy a Hunt watercolor as I was over this one. When I first learned of William Henry Hunt in November 1977, I found an article from the 1890s which included images of several important watercolors, incliding oe of Too Hot!, which I would buy 9 years later. I would eventual learn where the other originals were located in more recent times ... except for one, The Pitcher Girl, which had been lost to the world for over 100 years. That all changed in November 2022, when The Pitcher Girl turned up for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, during this long period of waiting to actually see the painting, the condition of the watercolor had greatly deteriorated. In fact it is now in about the worst condition of any work by Hunt -- badly faded and a poor rpaired tear across the figures face. I had never brfore bought a Hunt painting in poor condition. But i had wantd this one for decads, almost 2/3 of my life, and it was in sufficiently good condition that one can get some idea of what it looked like a long time ago. So I compromised my standards and my first eBay purchase of wreck of a Hunt. But at least it was cheap!
Oh, I forgot to mention a major reason why I wanted this picture. It's not as if I actually needed another figure painting by Hunt which included a redware pitcher to go along with the other 10 that I already owned. What I did want was another well-drawn painting by Hunt which had, in the past, been included in either (or both) of the two most important 19th century art exhibitions which included the artist's work. One, the 1857 exhibition of art treasures of Great Britain -- iterally a world's fair consisting of works of art.Hunt chose which of his watercolors would be borrowed from their then-owners for inclusion, and many were among his best works. Many of these are jow ln museums. I already had 6 of the 30 which were in that exhibition -- Preparing for the Soiree, Consulting [Reading] the League, Too Hot!, the first version of Grandfather's Boots, Stable Boy [The Eavesdropper, and The Artist -- The Pitcher Girl is the 7th. Any watercolor exhibited in Manchester in 1857 is very hard to find and buy at this late date. The other exhibition is the one organized by the famous art critic, John Ruskin, for a London gallery in 1879-1880. I already had 6 of these -- A Hare(dead) a Pigeon, Primroses [which I bought in Sept. 2022], Sketch for the drawing of the Flycatcher, My Father's Boots [second version], The Art Critic. The Pitcher Girl is the 7th from this group of exhibited works.
