Gleams after rain

LOUIS BOSWORTH HURT

1856 - Derbyshire - 1929

Ref: CB 131

Gleams after rain

Signed lower right: Louis B. Hurt; inscribed with the title on the stretcher

Oil on canvas: 22 ½ x 27 ¾ in / 57.2 x 70.5 cm

Frame size: 29 x 34 in / 73.7 x 86.4 cm

Painted circa 1900

Provenance:

Private collection, South Africa

Hurt’s majestic Scottish views are rarely specified in his poetic titles, but were based on first hand observation of the dramatic, mountainous landscape. In this tour de force, Hurt excels in his rendition of the atmospheric effects of the wild highland climate, capturing spectacular shafts of sunlight through cloud, as well as encroaching mists, lending vivid realism to his detailed picture with remarkable sensitivity, which won him particular fame. 

Louis Bosworth Hurt was born at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, becoming a pupil of George Turner of Barrow-on-Trent, and was influenced by his master's style. In 1885, Hurt married a fellow artist Harriet Marion Bickley.  They moved to Ivonbrook House, Darley Dale, near Matlock, Derbyshire, where they lived for the rest of their lives.  The family kept Highland cattle in a paddock on the property from which the artist could make life studies.  Hurt frequently visited the island of Skye and the Highlands.  The artist owned a cottage in Bettws-y-Coed, Snowdonia, where he spent much time painting.  He also travelled South to the New Forest whose beech trees fascinated him.

Hurt exhibited thirteen works at the Royal Academy between 1881 and 1901 and his titles included In a Northern Glen, The Silence of the Woods, Peaceful Loch and mist-wreathed Hill.  He also exhibited regularly at the Royal Society of Artists, Suffolk Street and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and at numerous provincial venues among them the Glasgow Institute and the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham.  He showed at numerous exhibitions held in provincial art galleries as well, including the Manchester City Art Gallery, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and Nottingham Museum.

Hurt had many influential patrons.  Sir Merton Russell-Cotes who founded the Bournemouth Art Gallery, William Issac Palmer, the brother of George Palmer, who with Thomas Huntley formed the firm of 'Huntley and Palmer' and George McCulloch were among the eminent nineteenth century collectors and connoisseurs who sought out Hurt's work.

The work of Louis Bosworth Hurt is represented in the Bournemouth Art Gallery, the Manchester City Art Gallery, the Reading Museum and the National Art Gallery, South Africa.