Apple, Grapes and a Cob-Nut; William Henry Hunt

Watercolor and gouache over graphite; roughly 5 x 7 inches (13 x 19 cm); in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, which has both a zoomable and downloadable version of the image on their site.

Early 19th century English artist William Henry Hunt painted his exactingly detailed still life subjects — often fruit or birds’ nests — in a painstaking stipple technique over a ground of “Chinese White” (zinc white gouache). This gave them a luminescent quality admired by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, who took up the technique later in the century.