HUNT, WILLIAM MORRIS

born March 31, 1824, Brattleboro, Vt., U.S. died Sept. 8, 1879, Isles of Shoals, N.H. Romantic painter who created a fashion in the United States for the luminous, atmospheric painting of the Barbizon school. After attending Harvard College, Hunt studied with Thomas Couture in Paris and then at Barbizon with Jean-Franois Millet. Upon returning to New England, Hunt introduced the works of Camille Corot and the Barbizon school to the Boston society circles in which he moved, thereby turning a rising generation of American painters toward Paris. After 1855 he painted some of his best pictures, reminiscent of his life in France and of the influence of MilletThe Belated Kid, Girl at the Fountain, Hurdy-Gurdy Boystudies characterized by simplicity in drawing and tone. The public demand, however, was for portraits, and Hunt obtained many commissions from well-known personages. Unfortunately many of his paintings and sketches, together with his art collection, were destroyed by the great Boston fire of 1872. His allegories, The Flight of Night (1878), were lost by the disintegration of the stone panels on which they were painted. Among his later works, American landscapes predominated. Hunt wrote (Talks on Art, 1878) and was a magnetic and persuasive teacher; among those influenced by him were John LaFarge and William and Henry James.