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Winslow Homer

October 15, 1995 – January 28, 1996
East Building, Upper Level and Mezzanine

Winslow Homer, Warm Afternoon (Shepherdess), 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green paper faded to brown, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.24

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 229 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints by Winslow Homer were chosen from the Gallery's collection, with loans from other public and private collections. 72 of the works were specially selected to illustrate the artist's technique, working methods, and creative process.

An audio tour was narrated by Earl A. Powell III, director, and curators Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. and Franklin Kelly. A 6-minute video program exploring Homer's painting process was shown continuously in the East Building small auditorium. Winslow Homer: The Nature of the Artist, a half-hour film produced by the National Gallery, was shown in conjunction with the exhibition. A symposium, Conceptions and Misconceptions of Winslow Homer, was held on Sunday, December 3, in the large auditorium.

Free passes were required for admission on weekends and holidays and the day after Thanksgiving. In the winter of 1995/1996, the Gallery was closed during 2 federal government shutdowns and a blizzard, which severely affected public access to the exhibition. As a result of these closings, the Homer show could not be seen by the public for 29 days of its run at the Gallery.

Organization: Curators of the exhibition were Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. and Franklin Kelly, curators of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by GTE Corporation. The catalogue and brochure were supported by a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation.

Attendance: 349,258

Catalog: Winslow Homer, by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. and Franklin Kelly, with Judith Walsh and Charles Brock. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1995.

Brochure: Winslow Homer, by Charles Brock. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1995.

Other Venues: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 21, 1996–May 26, 2009
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 20–September 22, 1996

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876
Video, Released: November 1, 2011, (2:20 minutes)