William Morris Hunt: Women's Class in Boston, Pt. 2

"Portrait of William Morris Hunt"
by Helen Mary Knowlton

"One morning William Morris Hunt enter his class for women saying: 'Lay aside your work, all of you, and make me a drawing from memory.' Every pupil looked aghast. 'Impossible!' was written on every face. 'I give you ten minutes by the watch in which to draw something which you have seen this morning, at your homes, or on your way down to the studio.' There was no appeal from this order. No one was excused, and in ten minutes every pupil had drawn some reminiscence of the early morning. One had represented a breakfast table, one a hackney coach, one the roofs and chimneys from her Beacon Hill window, and each pupil had produced a sketch which was individual and original.

The order was subsequently given: "A memory sketch every day!" Hunt afterwards said that it was so difficult to enforce this regulation that he thought he should have to call in the Cadets. In time, however, each pupil was glad to make her daily contribution to the wall-space which was allotted to memory-sketches, and the collection was one of which Hunt confessed that he was proud. He considered it the most successful evidence of the good results of his method of teaching.

The class went on for three years. In that time Hunt found that his own work was suffering, portrait orders being postponed to the summer season, and giving him no opportunity for needful rest or change of work. He proposed to one of his pupils, [Helen Mary Knowlton], to take the classroom and see how many would return under the new management. He said, 'I will come in every day or two and correct, but will have none of the responsibility of the class.' After much persuasion, the pupil, herself a teacher, accepted the charge, and the class went on successfully for several years, Hunt continuing his interest in the students, especially in those who showed most ability or who seemed most seriously in earnest."

To be continued

(Excerpts from Helen Mary Knowlton's book "The Art-Life of William Morris Hunt.")