Alfred William Hunt (1830-1896), "Tynemouth Pier - Lighting the Lamps at Sundown," ca. 1865, watercolor, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund

It's been a long time since the works of Alfred William Hunt have been offered up to the general public in a major exhibition. Three memorial exhibitions devoted to the Victorian landscape artist were shown at the time of his death in 1896. The first major retrospective since then opens at the Yale Center for British Art on Sept. 18.

University College at Fairfield University invites art lovers to learn about Hunt before visiting the exhibit, "The Poetry of Truth: Alfred William Hunt and the Art of Landscape." Scott Wilcox, curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art, will deliver a "See the Masters with the Experts," lecture on Hunt on Friday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m. at Fairfield University.

One of Britain's most original landscape painters, Hunt took his inspiration from the works of the Pre-Raphaelites and J.M.W. Turner. "He is very little known," said Wilcox, who lobbied to put the exhibition together at Yale after displaying some of Hunt's works in a 1992 exhibition of Victorian watercolor landscape artists. "This will, I hope, help to revitalize his reputation."

In addition, Wilcox will also introduce lecture participants to the world of William Morris, a revolutionary interior designer and book printer, staunch socialist, prolific poet and architectural preservationist, who headed the firm Morris & Company. The Yale Center gathers more than 200 Morris materials for an exhibition entitled "The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design," which will run Oct. 14 through Jan. 2.

The Hunt exhibition will run through December 12. It will then go to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The cost of the lecture is $35. For more information, call (203) 254-4307 or visit University College at www.fairfield.edu.

Posted On: 09-17-2004 10:09 AM

Volume: 37 Number: 51