Esther Anna Hunt: Developing Chinese themes in American art
The market of 19th-20th century American small-scaled handicrafts, postcards, and souvenirs with the Asian twist are full of objects titled “Esther Hunt Era”, “a la Esther Hunt”, “Esther Hunt workshop” or “Esther Hunt style”.
Her legacy distinguishes with the oils, watercolours, etchings and coloured ceramic statuettes popular with the general public during her productive years, having been reproduced commercially for postcards, calendars, prints, busts, etc. She paid attention to every detail and each pattern of traditional attires and headgears, forms and design of the shoes, hairstyles of boys and girls, characteristic visage and maquillage of the women, custom-related activities and actions her figures are engaged in. In some cases exchanging the neutral background with the red wallpapers covered with the imitation of Chinese characters or typical Asian surroundings. From the first glance, the Chinese women and infants of Hunt’s world are careless and joyful, enjoying their calm life, but there’s always a melancholic vibe hatched from their facial expression or the gloomy background. Perhaps her own loneliness of never having had her own family and children found the indirect expression in her art. Although many independent people, find freedom and meaning beyond traditional roles. However, she’s portraying Chinese little ones with maternal love and tenderness deeply observing their postures, motions, gestures and mimics. As if once more stressing Chinese features her style and her acknowledgement of Asian culture, Hunt depicted some of the Chinese children with a pure-Chinese attribute: a lantern, a fan, an incense burner, a firecracker, a parasol, worshipping their deities, the others- with a rabbit, a parrot, a cat, a flower-underlining their innocent and dreamy nature. The majority of her works are one-figure compositions, a few genre paintings survived to us, depicting scenes in the temple, children playing with each other, an infant colouring the porcelain jar, mother holding her kids. Throughout her career, she experimented with a number of media: papier-mâché, gypsum, resin, plaster, ceramics and chalkware, composite materials, watercolour and gouache on paper, pastel on paper, oil on board, prints, but never left her favourite Chinese topics.
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