Mary Ethel Hunter (1878-1936) - 1917 Watercolour Soldier

Description

A charming watercolour study of a first World War soldier in a hard hat and trenchcoat. Signed and dated to the lower right. Presented in a gilt frame and washline mount. On paper.

Condition

Some light wear to the frame.

Size

24 x 16cm (9.4" x 6.3")
Framed Size: 42 x 33cm (16.5" x 13")

Artist Biography

Mary ethel Hunter was a painter of landscapes, portraits and flowers in oil, she studied at Newlyn, Penzance and Paris. Born in Todwick, Yorkshire, Hunter was the eldest child of Reverend Henry Rudd Hunter and his wife Hannah. Her father had come from the Penrith area in the Lake District and the familiarity with the region influenced her frequent choice of landscape subject and her later purchase of a home there with her younger sister, Margaret. In her late twenties, she studied in Newlyn and Penzance, became a friend of Dod Procter and exhibited at Newlyn Art Gallery. Later she studied in Paris and on her return worked as an art mistress at St. Alban's School of Art.


Mary Hunter was a member of the Leeds Fine Artists Club and showed at the Yorkshire Union of Artists, Lake Artists Society, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, NEAC, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, London Salon, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, RA, Royal Hibernian Academy and the Society of Women Artists. Examples of her work are in the collections of the Lakeland Arts Trust, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Salford Museum and Art Gallery and Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.


Christopher Wood in his Dictionary of Victorian Painters states that Mary Ethel Hunter married painter John Young-Hunter. This is incorrect and this Mary Hunter should not be confused with Mary Young-Hunter (1872-1947) to whom Mary Ethel Hunter was not related and is often erroneously conflated.