Provenance

Lucy Houghton Valentine

Valentine, Lawson Mrs.

American, 1830 - 1911

Explore selected works

Close to us, a young man and four boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea fringed with white foam in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy gray and white clouds skip across the pale blue sky. The sun skims along the scene from our right so the boys’ ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. They wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants in shades of brown, slate blue, white, and red. The young man and boys all face our left and they lean against and into the boat as it cants up to our right. The boy nearest the sail to our left reclines across the bow. Next to him, to our left, is a boy sitting on the edge of the boat partially hidden by the sail’s mast. To the right another boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest sits on the floor of the boat as he maneuvers the sail with a rope. Closer to us and to our right, a younger boy sits with his bare feet pressed together in front of his bent knees on the back edge of the boat, gazing into the distance over his right shoulder as he handles the tiller. Directly beneath his bent knee the boat’s name is painted on the flat stern: “FLIRT.” The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower left corner: “WINSLOW HOMER 1874.”
Winslow Homer, The Flirt, 1874, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.18

The Flirt

Winslow Homer · 1874 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.18

This painting shows a green landscape with a horizon line about two-thirds up the frame. Trees dot the horizon, and a dark green hill rises in the distance. A red building is partially visible behind some green trees near the upper left corner. Closer to us, a woman sits on what seems to be a brown stone wall, facing the right. Her right arm is raised with her hand resting on her head, obscuring her face. She has pale skin and dark brown hair tied into a braid, and she wears a gray dress and black shoes. Behind her is a grassy green field that stretches towards the horizon. The sky above is mostly white, with some hints of light gray and pale blue painted with thick, light brushstrokes.
Winslow Homer, The Green Hill, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.25

The Green Hill

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown ·  Accession ID  1994.59.25

This painting shows a woman standing in a grassy area. She is facing forward and looking down at a small white object she holds in her hands which vaguely resembles a small chick. A long white bonnet casts a shadow on her pale face. She wears a long-sleeved dress with light blue and white stripes with a black ribbon tied around her collar and a long brown apron around her waist. She stands on a wide patch of pale blue-green grass, and several brown and white chickens and small chicks walk in the grass around her. Behind her there are metal milk cans on the left, and on the right is a small red structure that could be a chicken coop. The background is filled by a large white building with a light brown porch and white beams supporting a white shingled roof. On the left is a window with dark green shutters, and in the center behind the woman is an open doorway. On the porch there is also a wooden chair and a wooden table with small pink and brown pots.
Winslow Homer, A Sick Chicken, 1874, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.21

A Sick Chicken

Winslow Homer · 1874 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.21

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.”
Winslow Homer, On the Stile, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.23

On the Stile

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.23

This painting shows a pastoral landscape from a slightly elevated viewpoint. Closest to us, two sheep are lying down on a shaded green slope next to a person on the right, who is wearing a dark red garment with a blue headscarf. The person lays in the grass, resting one head on their hand, looking to the right. The person seems to have peach-toned skin, although details of their face are hard to discern. There appears to be a brown basket next to them. In the background, more white sheep graze across rolling green hills illuminated with light. On the left are a grove of tall trees, which cast shadows on the grassy ground. There are more green trees near the top right corner, below a cloudy blue sky. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.
Winslow Homer, Warm Afternoon, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.24

Warm Afternoon

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown ·  Accession ID  1994.59.24

Two children are depicted in this painting. A young boy is sitting on a tree branch on the left, looking down at a girl on the right. The boy is barefoot, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, a long-sleeved brown shirt, suspenders, and yellow trousers. The girl is turned to the left and has her hands clasped around the tree branch above her. She has one leg bent and raised, her foot resting on a wooden fence that stretches across the bottom of the painting. She has a braided ponytail and is wearing a pale blue dress with elbow-length sleeves and ruffles around the waist. Both children have pale skin. The tree branch that the boy is sitting on and the girl is holding has many thinner branches connected to it, all covered in bright green leaves. The background shows soft mountains in blue and green under a pale, off-white sky.
Winslow Homer, On the Fence, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.22

On the Fence

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.22