Fishermen's Cottages and Other Houses on the Beach at Hastings 1815 - 1825

William Henry Hunt created this watercolor drawing of Fishermen's Cottages and Other Houses on the Beach at Hastings using watercolor and graphite on paper. The materials themselves speak volumes. Hunt, who specialized in watercolor, has here used a humble medium to depict a humble subject. The thin washes of pigment give a sense of transience, of a scene observed quickly, almost en passant. You can see the pencil under-drawing, which gives the work a structural underpinning, but is ultimately recessive. The buildings themselves are shown as ramshackle, built of roughly hewn timber. It looks like a place of hard labor. The scene captures a moment in time and gives a sense of the social and economic realities of the fishing community. Hunt's choice of materials, combined with his attention to the details of everyday life, challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and craft, inviting us to consider the social context in which art is made.