Winslow Homer

American, 1836 - 1910

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We look onto two black-headed ducks twisting and flailing midair against a slate-gray landscape in this horizontal painting. The silvery white body of the bird to our left faces us as its neck twists to our left, its black wings extended. The bird to our right falls with its head facing down, its gray wings partially contracted and its legs splayed. The landscape behind them is made up of a sliver of golden amber along the top edge above three wider bands of steel gray that darken toward the bottom of the canvas. A spray of turquoise near the bottom center of the painting indicates that the gray bands are cresting waves. Seen in the distance beyond the feet of the left bird, a gray smudge suggests smoke obscuring a man wearing a gray garment and vivid orange cap. His elbows are raised, presumably holding a shotgun. He sits in a long brown canoe that rides near the crest of the middle wave.
Winslow Homer, Right and Left, 1909, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1951.8.1

Right and Left

Winslow Homer · 1909 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1951.8.1

A young man with a peachy, ruddy complexion lies on his stomach in a wooden rowboat on a river, reaching forward to grasp the horn of a stag almost completely submerged in the rippling water with one hand. On the opposite riverbank, gold, rust, and scarlet-red trees span the width of this horizontal painting. The boy’s arms straddle the stern of the boat so one holds the antler with his right hand, closer to us, while the other clutches a rope with a loop at the end. He turns his face, mouth agape and cheeks flushed, over his right shoulder to look to our left, at a dog swimming toward the boat. The dog has white and caramel-brown markings, with dark brown ears. The boy wears earth-brown clothing and the front of his wide-brimmed hat is pushed up to reveal dark eyes and sable-brown bangs and brows. The stag and dog are between us and the boat, and are surrounded by thick brushstrokes of parchment white to create ripples in the forest-green water. Only the open muzzle, part of the eye, and the tips of the stag’s antlers are above the water’s surface. To our right, a bare, fallen tree lies along the far riverbank parallel to the boat. The boat and water fill the lower half of the scene and the autumn trees fill the upper half. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the lower right, “Winslow Homer 1892.”
Winslow Homer, Hound and Hunter, 1892, oil on canvas, Gift of Stephen C. Clark, 1947.11.1

Hound and Hunter

Winslow Homer · 1892 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.11.1

Winslow Homer, Sparrow Hall, c. 1881-1882, oil on canvas, John Wilmerding Collection, 2025.89.10

Sparrow Hall

Winslow Homer · c. 1881-1882 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2025.89.10

A woman with smooth, pale skin and wearing a hat, long dress, and gloves, stands holding a bunch of pumpkin-orange leaves against a background of trees painted with touches of rust orange and pine green in this vertical painting. The woman tips her head back slightly to look at us with dark eyes under arched eyebrows. Her cheeks are flushed and her coral-pink lips closed. Her round black hat perches on the back of her head and she has an inky black, long-sleeved, hip-length jacket with bronze trim at the shoulders, cuffs, and down the front. A gauzy bow is tied at her neck. Her left elbow, on our right, is bent and she holds up her tan-colored, ruffled skirt with a white-gloved hand. The raised skirt exposes sky-blue lining and white, ruffled flounces at her feet. Her right arm, on our left, hangs at her side and holds the handle of a basket. Deep marigold-orange leaves cascade out of the basket. One black shoe peeks out from under her long skirt. She stands on a hill carpeted with crimson-red, tawny-brown, golden yellow, and forest-green leaves. The space behind her is filled with touches and dabs of red, orange, brown, black, and tan.
Winslow Homer, Autumn, 1877, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.22

Autumn

Winslow Homer · 1877 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.22

This is a painting of an outdoor scene with a group of people gathered in front of a blue-gray wooden building with a dark door and two windows. Sunflowers grow on either side of the entrance, stretching up to the windows. The ground is painted in patches of tan, brown, and gray, perhaps indicating stone steps or a path. To the left of center is a group of shapes and colors that suggest four or five people gathered together on the ground. The people are painted with rough brushstrokes and have no distinct details or facial features. Their clothes are painted in shades of white, tan, gray, red, and pale blue, and appear to include dresses, bonnets, shirts, and suspenders. Their skin seems to be painted in shades of dark brown. There is a small stool or chair in the bottom right corner, and in the top left corner is a green area with white birds visible.
Winslow Homer, Sketch of a Cottage Yard, c. 1876, oil on academy board, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund and through the gift of Orme Wilson), 2014.136.83

Sketch of a Cottage Yard

Winslow Homer · c. 1876 · oil on academy board ·  Accession ID  2014.136.83

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

Light pours over a woman and a dozen children of different ages standing in small groups near a boxy, red schoolhouse in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale or tanned skin and wear clothing in earthy tones of brown, black, white, and pale yellow. The woman stands at the lower center of the composition on a dirt-packed area in front of the building. She wears a white hat tied with a black ribbon under the back of her hair and a long black dress. Two girls in floppy hats, each wearing ankle-length dresses, and a young boy holding a pail stand around her. The other children wear pants and long-sleeved shirts, and some wear hats. A child stands in the open doorway along the right edge of the schoolhouse. The building has two windows on the same side as the door and a short chimney on the shallowly angled gray roof. On the short side of the building, a child paints the letters “WH” in white on the red boards of the building. A hill rises behind the schoolhouse and off the top right corner of the canvas. A sliver of white clouds against a pale blue sky cuts across the top left corner. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “WINSLOW HOMER.”
Winslow Homer, School Time, c. 1874, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.19

School Time

Winslow Homer · c. 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.19

Close to us, a young man and three boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the canvas and is echoed in the background to our right by the tall sails of another ship in the distance. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and puffy gray and white clouds sweep across the turquoise sky. The sun lights the scene from our right so the boys’ ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. The young man and boys all face our left so 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 right, a younger boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest, in a red shirt, 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. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower right corner: “HOMER 1876.”
Winslow Homer, Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation, 1943.13.1

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)

Winslow Homer · 1873-1876 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.13.1

A woman holding a baby stands near a young boy who perches in the tipped-up end of a rowboat that has been pulled onto a sandy beach in this horizontal painting. All the people have light skin. The turquoise and aquamarine-blue ocean beyond meets the pale blue sky at the horizon line, about halfway up the composition. To our left of center, one end of the wooden rowboat has been propped on what might be a fallen piling on the sandy, rocky beach. The boy sitting in the bow faces our left almost in profile, and wears a round, brimmed straw hat over brown hair, a brown, long-sleeved shirt, and charcoal-gray pants. His face turns away from us so we only see his cheek and the curve of his ear. To our right, the woman’s dark hair is pulled up and she wears a white apron over a long brown skirt. She stands angled to our right and looks over the shoulder of the blond baby she holds up against her chest. The child is dressed in a white skirt, blue sash, a red jacket, and black shoes. The beach around the people is strewn with another rowboat, large boulders, a wooden barrel, and fishing nets hung over a tall frame to dry. A few tufts of scrubby grass grow in the sand around the woman’s feet. The white sails of several ships line the horizon in the deep distance. Thin, pale peach clouds float across an ice-blue sky. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower left corner: “WINSLOW HOMER 1873.”
Winslow Homer, Dad's Coming!, 1873, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2001.97.1

Dad's Coming!

Winslow Homer · 1873 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2001.97.1

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman stands close to us with a red schoolhouse in the distance under a sunset sky in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces us, but she turns her head to look off to the left with light brown eyes. She has a short, straight nose, full pink lips, and a round face. Her blond hair is pulled up under a round white hat layered with ruffles, which lies like a pancake over the top of her head. Her white dress is vertically striped with thin rust-red lines and has a long-sleeved, tight-fitting bodice and a long skirt. A dark gray belt is cinched around her narrow waist, and she wears a black, lacy ruffle around her neck. The woman’s arms hang by her sides, and she holds two paperback-sized books in her left hand, to our right. An earth-brown lawn stretches back to the schoolhouse, which has crimson-red walls, a chimney, and a dark gray roof. Three forms painted with a few streaks of dark or light gray or topaz blue suggest people standing near the door of the schoolhouse. Trees and a grassy lawn beyond the building are loosely painted with blended strokes. The sky is shaded pale lemon yellow and light peach with touches of rose pink. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “HOMER 1873.”
Winslow Homer, The Red School House, 1873, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.21

The Red School House

Winslow Homer · 1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.21

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Bibliography

1911

  • Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer. Boston, 1911.

1944

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. New York, 1944.

1961

  • Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck. Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work. New York, 1961.

1966

  • Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck. Boston, 1966.

1979

  • Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York, 1979.

1989

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. Winslow Homer. New York, 1989.

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: 300-301.