Saying Grace Pencil, watercolor, and bodycolor with scratching out signed W. Hunt 15 1/2 X 10 3/4 inches, 29.5 X 275 cm.
Exhibited: 1842, London, Society of Painters in Water-Colours, No. 167, Saying Grace
Provenance: Sarah Hoare and Ellen Pryor, who commissioned Hunt to paint a replica of the exhibited painting, see below; Mrs. S. Hoare, Heath, Hampstead; Mrs. M. Pryor, Weston, Hertfordshire; Leonard M. Powell, Bagford, Grange, Hertfordshire; Leger Galleries (s) 1971, Cat. No. 72 Fine Art Society, London (S) 1973; (S) Sotheby's 11 July 1785, Lot No. 176 Hunt's handling of watercolor is tighter and more refined in this watercolor from 1842. The model is also a more attractive child than one often finds in his figurative watercolors. But for those reasons, along with the subject matter of a chid saying grace before his meal, the resulting image is closer to the somewhat insipid images produced by the later Victorians than what usually in seen in the more straightforward images for which Hunt had been known. Of course, the Victorian public must have liked sentimental images or artists would not have produced so many in the second half of the 19th century.
A note on the back of this watercolor, dated 1901, gives a rather detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of this watercolor. Two spinster aunts of the writer of the note are said to have attended the 1842 watercolor exhibition and liked this subject the best of those submitted by William Henry Hunt. As was often the case by then, most of Hunts' works, including this one, were already sold before the exhibit opened to the public. The sisters asked Hunt if he could paint another painting like this, and Hunt said that he would as long as the first purchaser agreed to the copy being made. After obtaining permission, Hunt told the women to come to his studio on a certain date to pick up their watercolor. When they arrived, two identical pictures were sitting next to each other. The buyers asked which one was theirs, and Hunt responded: "Take whichever you like, they are exactly the same." The only unstated detail is whether the sisters ended up with the original, exhibited version or if they took the replica. Judging from other examples of Hunt's replicas of his own work, it is possible that neither the sisters nor the artist could have told the difference at that point.
There does not seem to be any way, now, to determine if this is the exhibited work or the replica, and the other version is presently untraced.
