Astonishment, a.k.a., Spilt Milk Watercolor and bodycolor with gum arabic and scratching out 13 X 8 inches, 33.02 X 22.32 cm Signed W. Hunt and dated 1839, lower left
Provenance: With Leger Galleries, London (S) Sotheby's 14 July 1994, Lot 149
One is left to speculate what elicited this shocked expression on the face of William Henry Hunt's favorite model, John Swain. John wears the same hat he wore in Juvenile Palmestry, which was painted at about the same time. Similarly, the boy in yet another watercolor from 1839, The Eavesdropper, who I believe to be John's older brother, William Swain, wears the same hat as that seen on the seated girl in Juvenile Palmistry. But even more interesting than the comparison of hats in Hunt's work is the skillful rendition of milk in this picture. One can even see the slight separation of the milk around the edges of the bowl, which must be where we get skim milk -- Sorry, I've never lived on a farm, but it sure looks less fatty around the perimeter.
This watercolor was engraved for inclusion in Hunt's Comic Sketches (1844), an oversized, bound collection of engravings after William Henry Hunt's humorous depictions of everyday activities of Victorian children. If anyone is interested in see a set of the hand-colored engravings, don't look for the book itself, and don't ask for it all over Great Britain in every library you can find - it most likely won't be on any library shelf. Don't even go the the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Instead, go to the V&A Department of Prints and Drawings, where you can actually find the prints, loose, totally unbound, but nonetheless the very pictures you won't find in libraries. Some of the uncolored engravings from another, less expensive edition of the "book" can be found in the print room of the British Museum.
