Girl with Red Hair Ribbon,

ca. 1875

Hunt began his career intending to become a sculptor, but in 1846 while studying in Paris, he determined to focus on painting instead. He never fully abandoned three-dimensional work, however, and the solidity of his paintings reveals an abiding concern with mass and form despite their sometimes loosely brushed surfaces. Hunt was especially influenced by his friend and teacher Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), whose hazy but dense realistic style and focus on rural life found echoes in his own work, even as he gravitated in later years toward portraiture. Girl with Red Hair Ribbon embodies the smoky, evocative quality of Hunt’s most compelling imagery. Its small scale and indistinct subject suggest it may have been completed as a teaching aid for some of the artist’s many students.