Landscape

W. H. Hunt

1856. Watercolour on paper. Art Museum of Estonia – Johannes Mikkel’s collection. Signed at the lower left “W. H. Hunt”

Johannes Mikkel’s collection boasts two small-sized good quality 19th-century watercolours, both of which have been signed. The signatures suggest well-known artists. The warm sun-drenched southern park landscape bears the signature “W. H. Hunt” and the date 1856 in the lower left corner. There are two British artists from that period who could be associated with that signature: the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) and the somewhat lesser known William Henry Hunt (1790–1864), a founding member of the British school of watercolour painting. The style of the drawing does not, however, conform to the works of either artist, and the handwriting of the signature is different from their known signatures.