Ruskin sent his assistant and former pupil at the Working Men's College, William Ward for six lessons from Hunt in 1861 ( Works, 37.704). In The Elements of Drawing he asks his readers to:
practice the production of mixed tints by interlaced touches of pure colours out of which they are formed, and use the process at the parts of your sketches where you wish to get rich and luscious effects. Study the works of William Hunt, of the Old Water-Colour Society, in this respect ( Works, 15.152-3).
Ruskin used Hunt 's works as examples at the Working Men's College where he taught drawing in the 1850s (see Haslam, 'Looking Drawing and Learning with John Ruskin at the Working Men's College', 1988) and in his drawing schools at Oxford. Education Series nos., 168, 192, and 213. Rudimentary Series, 59, 60, 179 and 180 ( Works, 21.xlvi). However, in Pre-Raphaelitism, Ruskin observed that:
It is hardly necessary to point out the earnestness or humility in the works of William Hunt; but it may be so to suggest the high value they possess as records of English rural life, and still life. Who is there who for a moment could contend with him in the unaffected, yet humorous truth with which he has painted our peasant children? Who is there who does not sympathise with him in the simple love with which he dwells on the brightness and bloom of our summer fruit and flowers: And yet there is something to be regretted concerning him: why should he be allowed continually to paint the same bunches of hot-house grapes, and supply to the Water Colour Society a succession of pineapples with the regularity of a Covent Garden fruiterer? ( Works, 12.361).
Both Ruskin and his father purchased a large number of works by Hunt. For example, John James Ruskin bought The Loiterers in 1833, Interior Outhouse etc, c 1835, Peach and Grapes, 1858, Grapes and Medlars, 1860, whilst Ruskin, in addition to the purchase of works at exhibitions, commissioned paintings from Hunt including for example, A Bit of Mont Blanc (painted for J. Ruskin Esq.,) in 1856, and Shells 1860. Ruskin asked Hunt to produce a series of small works which he hoped to present to 'ten of our principal Schools of Art' ( Works, 16.316). He discusses Hunt's work in detail in his' Notes on Prout and Hunt' (1879-1880).
On Hunt 's death Ruskin wrote to his daughter Emma: 'I thank you for your letter:no one living of your father's friends will mourn him more deeply than I :- it was my pride, that I could recognise his unrivalled powers in art- and one of my chief happinesses that I could sometimes hope he took pleasure in my sympathy and admiration' ( Works, 36.466-7).