Artwork
Winged Fortune
Winged Fortune is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist William Morris Hunt. It is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
History & Provenance
Winged Fortune was created by William Morris Hunt in 1878, executed in oil paint on canvas in the United States. The work entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is held under accession number 1970.54 and remains in the museum's holdings. The available records document its medium, origin, accession number, and current location at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Context
William Morris Hunt's oil painting Winged Fortune, dated 1878, entered the Cleveland Museum of Art collection in 1970, catalogued as 1970.
William Morris Hunt's oil painting Winged Fortune, dated 1878, entered the Cleveland Museum of Art collection in 1970, catalogued as 1970.54. The work measures 252.0 cm by 159.5 cm, was created in the United States, and is classified as a painting. It is held in the museum's collection in Cleveland, Ohio.
Scholarly attention to Winged Fortune remains limited, with no major critical assessments documented in widely accessible sources. Its significance is primarily contextual within Hunt's oeuvre as a leading Boston painter of the later nineteenth century, whose work was shaped by the French Barbizon school.
Overview
Created in 1890, Winged Fortune is an oil painting by American artist William Morris Hunt. Hunt, who studied in Paris under Jean‑François Millet and was linked to the Barbizon school, became a prominent portrait and landscape painter in Boston. The work belongs to the American Impressionist tradition and is part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas presents a nude female figure with expansive, feathered wings that suggest a cherubic being. She holds a red cloth in her right hand and grasps a slender object, perhaps a feather or a staff, in her left. Set against a pale blue sky and a bold red‑yellow form behind her, the figure gazes directly at the viewer with a neutral expression, inviting contemplation of mythic or allegorical themes.
Technique & Style
Hunt employs loose brushwork and a luminous palette characteristic of American Impressionism, using contrasts of red, yellow, and blue to model form and suggest depth. The handling of light on the skin and wings creates a sense of three‑dimensionality, while the background’s flat color field emphasizes the central figure.
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Artist & collection
Artist
William Morris Hunt (March 31, 1824 – September 8, 1879) was an American painter.
