Michael John Hunt, Wynkoop Untitled 1. Acrylic on canvas, 86.36 x 86.36 cm, 34 x 34 ins © The Hunt Gallery

The American Museum in Britain is delighted to present Painted Rooms: American Historic Interiors by Michael John Hunt on view at Claverton Manor, Bath, from Saturday 10 March to Sunday 28 October 2012. Forty of Hunt’s exquisite interiors of Winterthur and Wynkoop, treasured historic houses in the USA, will be displayed in the American Museum’s period rooms and Gallery, before travelling to Winterthur later this year.

Celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic for his meticulously detailed architectural paintings, English artist Michael John Hunt (b. 1941) is entirely self-taught and has an intuitive understanding of perspective that would rival the abilities of many an artist. He has exhibited around the world from Amsterdam to Dubai and counts among his collectors members of the British Royal Family as well as Washington society. 

One of the most striking features of Hunt’s portraits of American historic interiors is his theatrical use of natural light: sunlight filters between wood wall panelling, spills through window panes, and pools onto floorboards by open doorways. Fleeting shadows are thus captured forever in paint. Surprisingly, Hunt creates his pictures with layered acrylics and glazes producing subtleties of light and colour that are more usually associated with oil pigments. Thus Hunt illustrates his innate artistic dexterity – the painterly equivalent of a musician’s ‘perfect pitch’.

Founded by Henry Francis du Pont, Winterthur is the premier museum of American decorative arts, reflecting both early America and the du Pont family’s life here. Its 60-acre naturalistic garden is among the country’s best, and its research library serves scholars from around the world. Over the years, Hunt has built up a considerable painted archive of the 175 period rooms on view there and, since this is one of the museums on which the American Museum in Britain was modelled, this exhibition in Bath is most appropriate. Hunt has also produced a similar collection of paintings of Wynkoop House, a fine Colonial period stone house in New York State and the largest in Marbletown, when it was built for Cornelius Evert Wynkoop in 1767. Wynkoop, of Dutch descent, was a successful merchant and served as a Major of the Minutemen of Ulster County in the American Revolution.

Curator Laura Beresford comments: “With the symbiotic relationship between our museum and Winterthur, there is no more appropriate UK venue for an exhibition of Michael Hunt’s historic house interiors than the American Museum in Britain. These pictures will not be confined to a gallery setting: we will also hang paintings in our period rooms that mirror those at Winterthur. Our visitors will thus have the opportunity to make visual and historical connections, as they admire the virtuosity of a master painter.”

Michael John Hunt, Readbourne Parlor, Winterthur. Acrylic on canvas, 91.44 x 66.04 cm, 36 x 26 ins © The Hunt Gallery

Michael John Hunt, Wynkoop Untitled 17. Acrylic on canvas, 101.6 x 152.4 cm, 40 x 60 ins © The Hunt Gallery

Michael John Hunt, Massachusetts Hall, Winterthur. Acrylic on canvas, 86.36 x 76.20 cm, 34 x 30 ins © The Hunt Gallery

Michael John Hunt, Dining Room Cross Hall, Winterthur I. Acrylic on canvas, 86.36 x 76.20 cm, 34 x 30 ins © The Hunt Gallery

Michael John Hunt, Patuxent Room, Winterthur. Acrylic on canvas, 91.44 x 66.04 cm, 36 x 26 ins © The Hunt Gallery

Michael John Hunt, Federal Parlor, Winterthur. Acrylic on canvas, 101.60 x 152.40 cm, 40 x 60 ins © The Hunt Gallery