Hunt

Millet. His intimate association with Millet at
Barbizon for two years and his admiration of
Millet's art were factors of prime importance in
the development of his own work. He also had
the advantage of the friendship and counsel of
Antoine Barje, the sculptor, and of John La
Farge. Thus his style eventually became a com-
posite of Couture's method plus Millet's ponder-
ous virility, on which was superimposed his own
serious and ardent nature. With his sensitive
poetic temperament and all these valuable con-
tributing elements, he seemed destined to go far.

He returned to the United States in 1856 and
settled for a time in Newport, R. I. Then he went
to Brattleboro, Vt, to Fayal in the Azores, and
finally, in 1862, to Boston. His first studio was
in Roxbury, but in 1864 he moved to Summer
Street. That part of the city was swept by the
great fire of 1872, and much of Hunt's work
done up to that time, together with paintings by
Millet, Diaz, and other Barbizon painters, was
destroyed. Fortunately he had hung some of the
Millets in his Beacon Street house. By his mar-
riage in 1855 to Louisa Dumeresq Perkins, he
had entered "the charmed circles of what was
considered the best society of the city/' It is
clear, however, that his life in Boston was not
happy. He was ahead of his time in matters of
taste; he felt like a missionary among the hea-
then, whose ignorance and indifference got upon
his nerves. Yet he was a personage in the city;
he had many good friends, not a few admirers,
and a few patrons. His company was much
sought for; his brilliant talk, his wit, and his
personal chartn made him popular. He had an
enthusiastic group of students in his class, to
whom his lightest word was law. His propa-
ganda in behalf of Millet, Corot, Rousseau, et id
genus omne, succeeded so well that Boston at-
tained the glory of providing the first market in
America for those masters' works at a time when
they were not yet fully acknowledged in France,
If in spite of all this Hunt was not happy, one
must ask whether the cause did not lie within
himself*

One of the earliest and best of his portraits is
that of Chief Justice Shaw which hangs in the
Essex County courthouse, Salem, Mass. It is a
very imposing work. The portraits of Francis
Gardner, master of the Boston Latin School, and
Mrs. Charles Francis Adams are also represen-
tative. The solid worth of such portraits as these
goes far to justify the remark of Philip L Hale
to Ifae effect that Hunt was better equipped for
aS kinds of art than either Copley or Stuart, and
possessed a more artistic personality. In 1875
commissioned to paint two large mural

Hunt

decorations for the Assembly chamber of the
Capitol at Albany, N. Y. These paintings, "The
Discoverer/' and "The Flight of Night," were
each sixteen by forty feet in dimension; they
were in oil colors, and were painted directly on
the stone walls. The work had to be done swiftly
and under trying conditions. Unhappily the
panels have been ruined by the dampness of the
walls. They were the most important and per-
haps the best mural paintings that had been done
in America up to that time. Hunt's death oc-
curred in the Isles of Shoals, off the New Hamp-
shire coast. He was drowned in a pool near
Celia Thaxter's cottage. It is generally believed
that it was a case of suicide.

[Helen M. Knowlton, Art-Life of Wm. Morris Hunt
(1899), and W. M. Hunt's Talks on Art (1875);
Martha A. S. Shannon, Boston Days of Wm. Morris
Hunt (1923) ; H. C. Angell, Records of Wm. M. Hunt
(1881); F. P. Vinton, "Wm. Morris Hunt," Am. Art
Rev.t Dec. 1879, Jan. 1880 ; Masters in Artt Aug. 1908;
Samuel Isham, Hist, of Am. Painting (1905); M. R.
Oakey, article in Harper's Mag.t July 1880; Helen M,
Knowlton, article in New Eng. Mag., Aug. 1894; H.
T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists (1867); C. H. Oaf-
fin, The Story of Am. Painting (1907); J. C. Van
Dyke, A Text-book of the Hist, of Painting (1894);
W. Lubke, Outlines of the Hist, of Art (ed. 1904); W.
H. Downes, "Boston Painters and paintings," Atlantic
Monthly, Sept. 1888; exhibition catalogue of paintings
and drawings by Hunt, Boston (1880); catalogue of
the memorial exhibition of Hunt's works at the Mu-
seum of Fine Arts, Boston (1879) J and the catalogue
of the Hunt loan exhibition held at the St. Botolph
Gtib, Boston (1894).] ^ jjt p.

HUNT, WILSON PRICE (i7&2?-April
1842), commander of the Astoria overland ex-
pedition, was born in Hopewell, N. J., the son of
John P. and Margaret (Guild) Hunt, and a de-
scendant of John Hunt who settled in that vil-
lage soon after 1700* He moved to St. Louis in
1804, and on Dec. 18 was chosen a member of
the village's first grand jury. With John Hank-
inson as partner he conducted a general store
until June 10, 1809. He had then doubtless al-
ready engaged himself to Astor, for he soon af-
terward left for New York. Early in 1810, as a
partner of the Pacific Fur Company, he arrived
in Montreal, and with another partner, Donald
McKenzie, began to organize the expedition.
Passing through St. Louis in September, he es-
tablished a winter camp near the present St
Joseph. On Apr. 21, 1811, with Hunt as sole
commander, the party started up the river. At
the Arikara villages Hunt abandoned the river
route, and with his company partly mounted
struck out westward. On reaching the Snake he
made the blunder of loosing his horses and at-
tempting to navigate the river. Baffled by the
turbulent stream, the company broke up into sev-
eral groups, which after experiencing extreme
privations straggled into Astoria during the

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