On the Stile

1878

Winslow Homer

Artist, American, 1836 - 1910

A boy leads a girl by her hand across three wooden steps that allow for passage over a fence in this horizontal watercolor. The fence spans the width of the paper, but angles slightly away from us as it moves off to our left. The fence is made up of four widely spaced horizontal rails across vertical posts. The boy and girl face away from us but have pale or tanned skin and brown hair. The girl is on our side of the fence, her front foot on the top step. She wears a long white dress edged with ruffles and shaded with slate blue. Her hair is tied with a blue ribbon, and another ribbon flies from the back of her straw-colored hat. The boy begins to step down on the far side of the fence. He wears tan overalls, a gray shirt, and a wide-brimmed straw hat. The ankle we can see is bare. A tree branch with dark green leaves dips down into the scene from the upper right corner. A wash of dark green on the far side of the fence suggests a shrub in an otherwise flat field of fresh, celery green. The top rail of the fence overlaps the horizon, where a light blue hill rises to fill much of the upper half of the composition. A narrow wedge of cream-white sky angles into our view at the top left. The artist signed the lower right corner, “HOMER.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 22 × 28.4 cm (8 11/16 × 11 3/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1994.59.23

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Goodrich/Gerdts 2008, Vol. III, no. 724

More About this Artwork

Article:  34 Artworks About Love at the National Gallery

From first kisses to tragic romances, our collection abounds with love, in all its forms.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lawson Valentine, New York, c. 1879, (d. 1891); Lucy Houghton Valentine (Mrs. Lawson Valentine), 1891; Almira Valentine Pulsifer (Mrs. Nathan Trowbridge Pulsifer), her daughter, 1911; Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer, New York, her son, nd; Susan Nichols Pulsifer (Mrs. Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer), in trust, 1948; Alice Pulsifer Doyle (Mrs. Joseph Doyle), his niece, 1987; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift to NGA, 1994.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1915

  • Water Colors by Winslow Homer, The Museum of the Brooklyn Institute, 16 Oct.-7 Nov. 1915; The Century Association, New York, 8 Dec. 1915-c. 14 Jan. 1916, no. 31 (as On the Stile, Houghton Farm)

1936

  • Winslow Homer Centenary Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 15 Dec. 1936-13 Jan. 1937, no. 46

1944

  • Winslow Homer, Worcester Art Museum, 16 Nov.-17 Dec. 1944, no. 27

1947

  • A Loan Exhibition of Winslow Homer for the Benefit of the New York Botanical Garden, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 19 Feb-22 March 1947, no. 50

1954

  • The Art of Winslow Homer, Bowdoin College Museum of Fine Arts, Brunswick, Maine, and Art Department of Colby College, Waterville, Maine, 1-21 Nov., and 1-21 Dec. 1954

1963

  • Winslow Homer in New York State, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, 29 June-22 Aug. 1963, no. 28

1983

  • Winslow Homer Watercolors, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, 7 May-19 June 1983, no. 6

1990

  • Winslow Homer in the 1870s: Selections from the Valentine-Pulsifer Collection, The Art Museum, Princeton (New Jersey) University, 10 Feb.-11 March 1990; Wadworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 18 March-15 April 1990, no. 9

1995

  • Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995-1996, 166-167, no. 99.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999-2000.

2005

  • Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005-2006, unnumbered brochure.

Bibliography

1990

  • Wilmerding, John and Linda Ayres. Winslow Homer in the 1870's: Selections from the Valentine-Pulsifer Collection. Exh. cat. The Art Museum, Princeton University; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Princeton, 1990: 60, 62 and 63.

1995

  • Winslow Homer. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995-1996: no. 99.

2001

  • Winslow Homer and the Critics. Exh. cat. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2001-2002: fig. 111.

2008

  • Tedeschi, Martha with Kristi Dahm. Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, Art Institute of Chicago, 2008: 204, fig. 16.

  • Goodrich, Lloyd and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. New York, 2008: III: no. 724, p. 150

2009

  • Tatham, David and David Lake Prince. Winslow Homer's Empire State: Houghton Farm and Beyond. Exh. cat. Syracuse University Art Galleries, New York, 2009: 35-36.

Inscriptions

lower right in gouache: HOMER; right center verso in graphite by unknown hand: Pulsifer 3/8107 - 29 / R 13 3/4 x 16 1/4 / ?/ L 8 5/8 x 11 1/8; center verso in black ink by unknown hand: 50; lower left verso in black ink (upside down) by unknown hand: 15; lower center verso in black ink (upside down) by unknown hand: N.2

Wikidata ID

Q64640182

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