Pale blue china jug with heaths and small flowers 1860

William Henry Hunt made this watercolor painting of a pale blue china jug with heaths and small flowers sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The painting is an example of the kind of still life that became popular as the Victorian middle class gained wealth and filled their homes with mass-produced decorative objects. Hunt was a member of the Old Watercolor Society, one of several new institutions that arose at this time to nurture a market for British art. He developed a detailed style, using stippling and blotting to capture the textures of humble objects such as fruit, vegetables, and in this case, a simple jug filled with locally gathered flowers. These highly crafted images domesticated nature for urban audiences. To truly understand Hunt's work, we might research the exhibition histories of the Old Watercolor Society, or delve into Victorian periodicals to examine the era's popular taste for the picturesque.