The Flirt

1874

Winslow Homer

Painter, American, 1836 - 1910

Close to us, a young man and four boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea fringed with white foam in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy gray and white clouds skip across the pale blue sky. The sun skims along the scene from our right so the boys’ ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. They wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants in shades of brown, slate blue, white, and red. The young man and boys all face our left and they lean against and into the boat as it cants up to our right. The boy nearest the sail to our left reclines across the bow. Next to him, to our left, is a boy sitting on the edge of the boat partially hidden by the sail’s mast. To the right another boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest sits on the floor of the boat as he maneuvers the sail with a rope. Closer to us and to our right, a younger boy sits with his bare feet pressed together in front of his bent knees on the back edge of the boat, gazing into the distance over his right shoulder as he handles the tiller. Directly beneath his bent knee the boat’s name is painted on the flat stern: “FLIRT.” The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower left corner: “WINSLOW HOMER 1874.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 68

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 20.64 × 31.91 cm (8 1/8 × 12 9/16 in.)
    framed: 28.58 × 39.37 × 3.81 cm (11 1/4 × 15 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    2014.18.18

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lawson Valentine [1827-1891]; his wife, Lucy Houghton Valentine [1830-1911]; by inheritance to their daughter, Almira Houghton Valentine Pulsifer [Mrs. Nathan Trowbridge Pulsifer, 1854-1919], Manchester, Connecticut; her son, Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer [1886-1948], Harpswell and Brunswick, Maine; in trust to his wife, Susan Farley Nichols Pulsifer [1892-1987], New York; by descent to his niece, Alice Pulsifer Doyle [1916-1996];[1] Alice P. Doyle Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust; purchased March 1989 by Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] Alice P. Doyle was the daughter of Harold T. Pulsifer's brother, Lawson Valentine Pulsifer (1881-1957).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1874

  • Possibly Century Association, New York, 1874, as Blue Fishing.

1949

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 1949-1989.

1954

  • The Art of Winslow Homer, Bowdoin College Museum of Fine Arts, Maine; Women's Union, Colby College, Waterville, Maine, 1954.

1990

  • Winslow Homer in the 1870s: Selections from the Valentine-Pulsifer Collection, The Art Museum, Princeton University; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1990, no. 5, repro.

Bibliography

1949

  • Green, Samuel M. The Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer Collection of Winslow Homer Paintings and Drawings at Colby College. Waterville, 1949: 13, no. 3.

1979

  • Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York, 1979: fig. 174.

1990

  • Carren, Rachel Ann. "From Reality to Symbol: Images of Children in the Art of Winslow Homer." 2 vols. Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, 1990: 1:109-110.

1995

  • Cikovsky, Jr., Nicolai, and Franklin Kelly. Winslow Homer. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Washington, D.C., and New Haven, 1995: 143, fig. 107, under no. 76.

2004

  • Isham, Howard. Image of the Sea. New York, 2004: 367-368.

2005

  • Goodrich, Lloyd, and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer, vol. 2. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005, pp. 272-273, 400, no. 492.

2006

  • Wilmerding, John. "Masterpiece: The Odyssey of Winslow Homer." The Wall Street Journal (12 August 2006).

2014

  • Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014): 7, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: HOMER / 1874; on transom of boat: FLIRT

Wikidata ID

Q20188772

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