The Red School House
1873
Artist, American, 1836 - 1910
Shown nearly full-length, a young schoolteacher fills the foreground of The Red Schoolhouse. Standing on a wide dirt path or road, she gazes off to her right with a solemn expression, holding two books in her left hand and the striped fabric of her flounced skirt in her right. Around her neck the teacher wears a lacy triangular shawl known as a fichu that appears to be fastened with a square gold brooch or button. Her black and white ruffled bonnet is similarly elegant. Though only roughly sketched, the building behind the central figure is recognizable as a small red schoolhouse toward which a trio of schoolgirls appear to be headed. The surrounding landscape, lush and green, is silhouetted against a wide expanse of sky that glows with the warm, bright colors of early morning.
The Red School House is related to a series of school subjects that Winslow Homer painted from 1871 to 1874. Though he varied the composition and narrative emphasis across the series, three elements remain consistent: a small red schoolhouse, its young female teacher, and a luminous mountain setting. Homer’s attention to this theme reflected a popular wave of nostalgia in late 19th-century America for small country schools and the simpler lifestyle they recalled. Part of a larger body of paintings of children completed in the 1870s, Homer’s school subjects, including The Red School House, simultaneously express the country’s sense of optimism for future generations in the wake of the Civil War.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I, pages 305-309, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-19th-century-part-1.pdf
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 68
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on canvas
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 55.5 x 39.5 cm (21 7/8 x 15 9/16 in.)
framed: 65.4 x 49.9 x 4.4 cm (25 3/4 x 19 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1985.64.21
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Nellie C.M. Taylor [Mrs. George H. Taylor], Boston, in 1919.[1] (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York); sold 1919 to Gilbert E. Rubens [1884-1960], New York; (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York); sold 22 November 1935 to Thomas Edward Hanley [1895-1969], Bradford, Pennsylvania;[2] by inheritance to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania;[3] (E. V. Thaw & Co., New York); sold 14 August 1970 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA.
[1] According to Lloyd Goodrich's provenance, as supplied by Abigail Booth Gerdts, 16 September 1991 (in NGA curatorial files), "Mrs. Taylor is reported to have said in 1919, that her father acquired this painting directly from Homer."
[2] The painting was exhibited in Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley at the Denver Art Museum from 22 February to 30 April 1968. Dr. Hanley died 9 April 1969, leaving his estate to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley.
[3] "Hanley Leaves Art Works to Colleges and Museum," (The New York Times, 27 April 1969) states "T. Edward Hanley, the oil heir, left the bulk of his estate, valued at up to $15 million, to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley." The collection presumably was dispersed according to his expressed wishes, but that dispersal evidently did not include The Red Schoolhouse. The painting was exhibited by Mrs. Hanley in the exhibition Works from the Hanley Collection at Canisius College in Buffalo from 23 November to 23 December 1969.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1947
A Loan Exhibition of Winslow Homer, Wildenstein & Company, New York, 1947, no. 16.
1961
Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings from the Hanley Collection, Wildenstein & Company, New York, 1961, no. 20.
1962
T. Edward Hanley Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1962, no cat.
1967
Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley, Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas, 1967, no. 57.
Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley, Gallery of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1967, repro. 17, 58.
1968
Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley, The Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 1968, repro. 17, 58.
Works from the Hanley Collection, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, 1968, no. 17.
1969
Works from the Hanley Collection, Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, 1969, no. 34.
1970
American 19th Century Paintings, Bernard Dannenberg Galleries, New York, 1970, no cat.
1986
Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist
2005
Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005-2006, unnumbered brochure.
Bibliography
1979
Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York, 1979: 94.
1986
Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. "Winslow Homer's School Time: 'A Picture Thoroughly National." In John Wilmerding, ed. Essays in Honor of Paul Mellon, Collector and Benefactor. Washington, D.C., 1986: 48, 56, repro. 52.
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: 1:52.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 203, repro.
1996
Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 305-309, color repro.
2005
Goodrich, Lloyd, and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer, vol. 2. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005, no. 424.
2014
Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014): 4, repro.
Inscriptions
lower right: HOMER / 1873; upper right, scratched into paint and then overpainted: Homer 1873
Wikidata ID
Q20188768