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A muddled waterside scene in grey-blue tones and some yellow .

A scene looking out over water with a sailboat. It is depicted in a blurry abstracted way as if through fog. Most of the picture consists of different shades of grey-blue, the sky and water mostly being lighter and clouds and the sailboat in a darker shade. In the distance there is a barely indicated shore with bright yellow-white lights on and above it, like the lights of a city or a celebration.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.305
People
Winslow Homer, American (Boston, MA 1836 - 1910 Prouts Neck, ME)
Title
Sailboat and Fourth of July Fireworks
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1880
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299839

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor and white gouache on white wove paper
Dimensions
24.5 x 34.7 cm (9 5/8 x 13 11/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: watercolor, l.l.: July 4 1880; l.r.: WH
  • inscription: verso, brown ink: 10 / Mac[?]
  • inscription: verso, black crayon: No 8 Lot A / 13 3/4 x 9 1/2
  • inscription: verso, upper left, graphite: 4156

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Winslow Homer, sold [through unnamed dealer, 1892]; to Jacob Otis Wardwell, Haverhill, MA, after 1892, bequest; to his son Sheldon Eaton Wardwell, Brookline, MA, 1940, sold [through William Macbeth Inc., New York, January 1941] [via Martin Birnbaum, 1941]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, 1941, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.305
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 102, ill.
  • Marjorie B. Cohn, Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 14, 34, 48, 50, 97, cat. 22
  • Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1979), CL-270, p. 297; fig. 226
  • George Plimpton, Fireworks, Doubleday & Co. (Garden City, NY, 1984), reproduced in color opposite p. 145
  • Helen A. Cooper, "Winslow Homer's Watercolors", The Magazine Antiques (April 1986), vol. 129, pp. 824-833, p. 827, plate V
  • Fireworks: American Artists Celebrate the Eighth Art, Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, OH, 1986), reproduced in color p. (5)
  • Helen A. Cooper, Winslow Homer Watercolors, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press (Washington, D.C. and New Haven, CT, 1986), pp. 73, 112, reproduced in color fig. 49
  • Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1990), reproduced in color p. 69
  • Kate F. Jennings, Winslow Homer, Crescent Books (New York, NY, 1990), p. 51
  • Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Winslow Homer Watercolors, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1991), color plate 29
  • Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. and Franklin Kelly, Winslow Homer, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press (Washington, D.C.; New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 286-287, reproduced fig. 189
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 232, ill. p. 233
  • David Tatham, Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY, 1996), p. 83, reproduced in b/w fig. 27
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Edward Saywell, "Guide to Drawing Terms and Techniques", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1998), vol. VI, no. 2, pp. 30-39, pp. 37-38 under "Watercolor"
  • Vincent Pomarède, "La Collection Winthrop: A la recherche de la beauté pure", L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art (April 2003), no. 379, pp. 34-45, p. 44
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), pp. 444-446, cat. 199, ill.
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 44, cat. 31, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), pp. 458-60, cat. 199, ill.
  • John Wilmerding, American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum, Volume I: Drawings and Watercolors, Princeton University Art Museum (New Haven and London, 2004), p. 160, fig. 1
  • Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, Spanierman Gallery (New York, 2005-2014), vol. 3, p. 385, no. 1001, repr. p. 386, repr. in color p. 474
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist
  • Sophie Lévy, ed., Winslow Homer: Poet of the Sea, exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain (Giverny, 2006), fig. 6 (color), mentioned pp. 33-34
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 151, cat. no. 115, reproduced in color, p. 153
  • Martha Tedeschi and Kristi Dahm, Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press (Chicago, 2008), pp. 74, 81, fig. 9 (p. 82)
  • Gabrielle Townsend, Winslow Homer: Aquarelles, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, France, 2011), repr. p. 50
  • Kathleen A. Foster, American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2017), pp. 207, 208, fig. 173
  • Elizabeth Athens, Brandon Ruud, and Martha Tedeschi, Coming Away: Winslow Homer and England, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Worcester, MA and Milwaukee, WI, 2017), p. 73, fig. 2
  • William R. Cross, Winslow Homer: American Passage, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, 2022), pp. 240-241, repr. p. 240 as fig. 140

Exhibition History

  • [Exhibition of Homer's Gloucester watercolors and drawings], Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, 12/08/1880 - 12/24/1880
  • Watercolors by Winslow Homer, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/09/1944 - 11/01/1944
  • Rivers and Seas: Changing Attitudes toward Landscape, 1700-1962, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 04/26/1962 - 07/16/1962
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/1977 - 06/22/1977
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950, at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/2006 - 06/25/2006
  • Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/05/2020

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu