Astonishment, 1839

This watercolor painting by William Henry Hunt was exhibited at the 1840 Spring Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours (No. 107), but it was probably painted in 1839. It shows the artist's favorite model, John Swain at age 13, with a startled expression and spilling milk from an earthenware dish. An engraving after the watercolor, bearing the additional subtitle, "A Run on the Milky Way," was included in the 1844 book, Hunt's Comic Sketches.