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A pale-skinned young woman stands facing our right on a grassy hillside also occupied by two cows, a rooster, and a chicken in this vertical watercolor. The palette is dominated with olive, forest, and sage green with touches of mauve pink, brown, and black. The woman’s body is angled slightly toward us, but her head turns away so we see her in profile. She wears a long, pale mauve-pink dress with a charcoal-gray and rust-brown scarf draped over her shoulders. White stockings and brown shoes peek out from under the ankle-length hem. A boxy, pale pink form, perhaps a bonnet, hangs down her back from a slender ribbon around the front of her neck. Her arms rest at her sides as she holds a small wooden stool in one hand and the handle of a wooden pail in the other. Just in front of her feet, a caramel-brown chicken pecks at the ground as the rooster, with a flounce of black tail feathers, looks alertly into the distance. The cluster of trees in the near distance beyond the young woman nearly fill the rest of the scene with their leafy canopies. Two cows are under the trees, one to either side of the woman. A chocolate-brown cow with a white face lies down on the left, while a ginger-brown cow stands on the right. Sunlight peeks in through a few gaps in the leaves. A portion of a distant slate-blue mountain and patch of pale peach sky are visible over the cow’s head in the lower left. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “HOMER 1878.”

Winslow Homer

The Milk Maid, 1878

Not on View

Medium

watercolor over graphite on wove paper

Dimensions

sheet: 50.3 × 36.1 cm (19 13/16 × 14 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ruth K. Henschel in memory of her husband, Charles R. Henschel

Catalogue Raisonné

Goodrich/Gerdts 2008, Vol. III, no. 672

Accession Number

1975.92.11

Artists / Makers

Winslow Homer (artist) American, 1836 - 1910

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left in black watercolor: HOMER 1878; lower center verso in graphite by unknown hand: not deciphered

Provenance

Henry C. Valentine, New York, c. 1879; Grace Barrett Valentine (Mrs. Henry C. Valentine), Darien, CT, nd; Charles R. Henschel, New York, c. 1943; Ruth K. Henschel (Mrs. Charles R. Henschel), New York, 1956; gift to NGA, 1975.

Associated Names

Henschel, Charles
Henschel, Ruth K.
Valentine, Grace Barrett
Valentine, Henry C.

Exhibition History

1879: The Century Association, New York, 11 Jan. 1879, no. 53 (as On a Dairy Farm) [?]

1944: Oils and Watercolors by Winslow Homer, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 3 Oct.-2 Nov. 1944

1962: Water Colors by Winslow Homer from the Collection of Mrs. Charles R. Henschel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 6 July-12 Sept. 1962, no. 1

1963: Winslow Homer in New York State, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, 29 June-22 Aug. 1963, no. 25

1966: Watercolors by Winslow Homer 1836-1910, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 7 July-28 Aug. 1966, no. 11

1975: Winslow Homer (1836-1910): Watercolors, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 28 Sept - 14 Dec, 1975.

1995: Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995-1996, 118-120, no. 53.

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

Bibliography

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. 53.

2000: Simpson, Marc. "Revelations for the Eye: Winslow Homer's Milkmaids." Belvedere vol. 1, (2000): 96, repro.

2001: Unger, Miles. The Watercolors of Winslow Homer. New York, 2001: 52, 58-59.

2008: Goodrich, Lloyd and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. New York, 2008: vol. III, no. 672, p.113