Mending the Nets

1882

Winslow Homer

Artist, American, 1836 - 1910

Winslow Homer

Attributed to

Two pale-skinned young women sit side-by-side on a bench so both face our right in profile as one knits and one mends a fishing net in this vertical watercolor. Both have pale skin with flushed cheeks and long blond hair. They wear long skirts, clog-like shoes, and the bodices have elbow-length sleeves. The woman closer to us has her hair pulled back under a band so wavy tendrils fall around her shoulders. She holds knitting needles and her work in one hand and pulls a thread of robin’s egg-blue yarn up with the other. The ball of yarn sits on the cobblestoned ground, and she lifts the string with her elbow raised so her hand is by her face. She looks down at the yarn. Her shirt is muted yellow over a red cloth across her chest. Her lap is covered by a tawny-brown cloth over her celestial-blue skirt, and her ankles are crossed. The farther woman’s hair is up, and she wears marine blue with brick-red stockings. She leans forward with a tool in her right hand, that elbow tucked back by her side. With her other hand, she holds the end of a fishing net that hangs on a wall opposite the women. An oval basket also hangs on the wall, which edges into the scene along the right edge of the paper. The cobblestones fade out rapidly beyond the sage-green bench, and the background is cream-white. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, “Winslow Homer 1882.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    transparent and opqaue watercolor over graphite on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Bequest of Julia B. Engel

  • Dimensions

    overall: 69.5 x 48.9 cm (27 3/8 x 19 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1984.58.3

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Goodrich/Gerdts 2012, Vol. IV.1, no. 1100

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mr. Charles W. Gould, NY; (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York); Solton Engel, New York; wife, Julia Engel by bequest, New York; gift to NGA, 1984

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1882

  • Fifteenth Annual Exhibition, 23 Jan.-25 Feb. 1882, American Water Color Society, New York, no. 648 (as Far Away from Billingsgate)

  • Brooklyn Art Association, 14-25 March 1882, no. 258 (as Fisherman's Daughters) [?]

1883

  • New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute, Boston, 5 Sept.-3 Nov. 1883, no. 364 (as Fisherman's Daughter, English Coast) [?]

  • Doll & Richards, Boston, [English and Maine subjects], 1-15 Dec. 1883, no. 48 (as Far Away from Billingsgate)

1891

  • Reichard & Co., New York, c. 2-15 Jan. 1891

  • Twenty-fourth Annual Exhibition, American Water Color Society, New York, Feb. 1891, no. 364 (as Mending Nets)

1936

  • Winslow Homer Centenary Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, 15 Dec. 1936-15 Jan. 1937, no. 54

1958

  • Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 23 Nov. 1958-4 Jan. 1959; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 29 Jan.-8 March 1959, no. 111

1973

  • Winslow Homer, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 3 April-3 June 1973, no. 100, (Whitney, only)

1986

  • Graphics Survey Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., October 1986.

1988

  • Winslow Homer: All the Cullercoats Pictures, The Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, England, 25 July-11 Nov. 1988, no. 32

1995

  • Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995-1996, 213-215, no. 124.

2005

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

Bibliography

1911

  • Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, Boston and New York, 1911: 96 fig., 150-151, 161.

1958

  • NGA Homer 1958, 111.

1986

  • Cooper 1986, p.95, fig.76.

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. 124.

2001

  • Unger, Miles. The Watercolors of Winslow Homer. New York, 2001: 104-105.

2006

  • Lévy, Sophie et al. Winslow Homer: Poet of the Sea, Exh. cat. Giverny: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2006: 76

2008

  • Tedeschi, Martha with Kristi Dahm. Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, Art Institute of Chicago, 2008: 57, fig. 24.

2012

  • Goodrich, Lloyd and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. New York, 2012: IV.1, no. 1100. p. 100-102

2017

  • American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2017: 132, no. 102.

Inscriptions

lower left in gray gouache: Winslow Homer 1882; upper center verso in black chalk by unknown hand: G-3 Doll & Richards 48

Watermarks

None.

Wikidata ID

Q64640129

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