by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 19, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
William Holman Hunt watercolours
William Holman Hunt made far fewer watercolours than oil paintings, but the surviving sheets reveal an important part of his work outdoors. Small enough to carry through Cornwall, the Holy Land or Switzerland, they gave him room to watch changes in light across sea, hills and sky. Some began as observations on a journey; some were refined later and sold or exhibited as works in their own right. His watercolour practice was neither uniformly quick nor simply a set of preparations for oil paintings.
This guide begins with Asparagus Island, Kynance, Cornwall, the coastal view pictured above. It then follows four other documented sheets. Their museum and catalogue records show how Hunt combined transparent washes with pencil, opaque colour and even the exposed surface of the paper. They also show why a title alone cannot tell us where a watercolour was made or whether it was completed on the spot.
At a Glance
- ArtistWilliam Holman Hunt (1827–1910)
- TraditionBritish Pre-Raphaelite art
- PageWatercolours
- ExplorePaintings · Drawings · Watercolours · Prints
Asparagus Island: colour and movement at Kynance
Hunt worked at Kynance Cove during an autumn 1860 journey in Cornwall and Devon with Alfred Tennyson, Val Prinsep and Francis Turner Palgrave. Palgrave later recalled finding Hunt and Prinsep there on 17 September. From a high position on the cliffs Hunt looked towards Asparagus Island, where the dark rocks, pale surf and changing colours of the sea make a demanding subject. The Christie's catalogue essay by Judith Bronkhurst[1] identifies the work as pencil and watercolour heightened with white, with scratching out, measuring 20 × 26 cm.
The medium explains some of its effects. Hunt left paper unpainted for parts of the swirling water and scratched through colour to bring out spray against darker rocks. His lines pick out the cliff forms while washes describe the shifting shallows. This is precise observation, yet it is also a constructed picture: the tiny foreground glimpse of cliff locates the artist's elevated viewpoint and gives the cove depth. Bronkhurst notes that the opaque touches near the horizon were probably added in 1862, after the visit. That is a qualified account of a likely later intervention, not a claim that every mark was made outdoors in one session. [1]
The work had a life beyond the journey. Hunt sold it to Henry Virtue Tebbs in March 1862 for 60 guineas; his correspondence says he still wanted to make small refinements. The familiar title Asparagus Island appears in the catalogue of Hunt's 1886 one-person exhibition. Its later documented provenance passed through the Morse family and public sales. The Christie's record does not establish a current museum collection, so a reproduced image should not be mistaken for evidence that the original belongs to one. [1]
Observing the landscape of the Holy Land
Hunt's first journey to the Near East in 1854–56 produced a group of watercolour landscapes alongside the work that led to his large religious paintings. These views are valuable as images of particular places and atmospheric conditions. They should not automatically be read as preliminary oil compositions. Bronkhurst counts seventeen watercolour landscapes from that journey and describes a recurring interest in the appearance of places at different times of day. [1]
The Dead Sea from Siloam is a particularly clear example. The Art Fund's record[2] identifies a watercolour at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and describes the view from the Mount of Offence towards the Dead Sea and the mountains of Moab in morning light. A letter from Hunt to Thomas Combe suggests that he began the sketch around September 1854. The archive record does not establish a precise completion date; its “1827–1910” line gives the artist's lifespan, not the watercolour's date. A Birmingham-sourced image record[3] dates the object 1861, which may reflect later completion. Published dimensions disagree, so no measurement is asserted here.
The Nile offers a different format: a long, low view of river, bank and warm sky. The Yale Center for British Art's record reproduced on Wikimedia Commons[4] dates it 1854, identifies watercolour on thick cream wove paper, and gives its sheet as only 10.6 × 25.4 cm (accession B2010.6.13). The horizontal shape is part of the composition, directing the eye along the river rather than towards a single foreground figure. A small paper surface could hold a broad geographical view.
Watch: William Holman Hunt
Begin with Hunt’s paintings, then place his work alongside two fellow Pre-Raphaelite founders.
William Holman Hunt Paintings
An overview of Hunt’s paintings from TheHistoryOfArt video archive.
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Night light, opaque colour and later journeys
Watercolour did more for Hunt than record bright daylight. Fishing-Boats by Moonlight is dated about 1869 by The Higgins Bedford[5], which holds the work as P.351. At 10.1 × 15.2 cm, it combines watercolour, bodycolour and pencil on paper. Bodycolour is opaque pigment; beside transparent washes it can supply a more solid note of reflected light or a compact form. The museum describes transparent watercolour and the white of the paper as central to much of Hunt's practice, but this sheet makes clear that he also varied the technique to suit a night scene.
The Rijksmuseum's The Terrace, Berne[6] belongs to 1875, two decades after the Near Eastern journey. Its inscription relates the view to the terrace of the hotel where Hunt and his wife first stayed on their wedding journey. The museum identifies watercolour and gouache on paper, 33.5 × 44.3 cm, accession RP-T-1953-114. A dark terrace frames the nocturnal river landscape, a more spacious use of the page than the tiny moonlit boats. The Rijksmuseum lists it under its drawings collection; “drawing” in that catalogue describes a broad works-on-paper category and does not erase the recorded watercolour and gouache medium.
What these sheets show
A sheet can record more than one moment
The history of Asparagus Island shows how much can happen between an outdoor observation and a finished watercolour. Judith Bronkhurst's catalogue essay places Hunt and Prinsep working on the cliffs for several days in September 1860, rather than treating the picture as the result of one brief stop. It also identifies at least three other Hunt drawings of the Lizard peninsula, including an unlocated Sea Mist view. The surviving Kynance sheet therefore belongs to a small sequence of looking at the same coast under different conditions. Its scratched spray and reserved paper are evidence of a deliberate technique; the likely later bodycolour near the horizon is a reminder that technical observations and dated correspondence must be read together. [1]
The same record says Hunt made ten watercolours in about three weeks on the 1860 West Country trip. That is a striking concentration for a painter known for slow, repeatedly revised oils, but it does not make all ten identical exercises. The cliffs gave him changing tides, sea mist and strong sun; a view could be chosen for its particular hour or effect. The guide's Kynance work can be compared with Fairlight Downs: Sunlight on the Sea, an oil landscape whose light is also a central subject, while their sizes, media and circumstances remain distinct. [1]
Watercolours also moved through exhibitions and private collections. Asparagus Island appeared under variant titles in the 1886 Fine Art Society show and an 1888 Whitechapel loan exhibition; a later catalogue called it Kynance Cove, Cornwall. Sydney Morse, a later owner, also held Hunt's Dead Sea from Siloam and a companion Cornish coast sheet. These records connect particular works and owners, but they do not establish that all of Hunt's travel watercolours shared one destination. The change of title is especially useful: “Asparagus Island” identifies the familiar picture today, while an old exhibition list may describe the same sheet by its wider cove or nearby headland. [1]
The five works span travel, place and weather, but their common feature is close attention to light. Hunt might exploit the sheet's white surface for sea foam, layer washes for distant hills, or add opaque pigment to hold a point of light after dark. The materials are visible parts of each image's meaning; they are not interchangeable labels. Nor does a small size mean a picture was left unfinished: Asparagus Island was revisited and sold, while other views entered collections and exhibition histories. [1] [5]
Looking closely also calls for care with dates and locations. A watercolour begun during travel may have been adjusted later, and a catalogue may use a descriptive modern title alongside an artist's inscription. Start with the object record, note the actual medium, then compare the subject with Hunt's drawings and paintings. That route keeps the different purposes of a sketch, a finished work on paper and an oil painting visible.
Discussion
What stands out when you compare the works and sources in Watercolours?
Reader Insights
Which work or period changes how you understand Hunt’s career?
How do the cited collection records support or complicate that reading?
What further source would help answer a question left open here?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Watercolours. The prompts above are starting points for discussion.
References
- Christie's catalogue essay by Judith Bronkhurst. View source.
- Art Fund's record. View source.
- Birmingham-sourced image record. View source.
- Yale Center for British Art's record reproduced on Wikimedia Commons. View source.
- The Higgins Bedford. View source.
- Rijksmuseum's The Terrace, Berne. View source.
