1939.233: Returning Fishing Boats

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1939.233

People

Winslow Homer, American (Boston, MA 1836 - 1910 Prouts Neck, ME)

Title

Returning Fishing Boats

Other Titles

Former Title: Sailing Home at Sunset, Tynemouth

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1883

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/307732

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite on off-white wove paper

Dimensions

40.9 × 63.3 cm (16 1/8 × 24 15/16 in.)
mat: 55.9 × 76.2 cm (22 × 30 in.)
frame: 64.6 × 84.8 × 1.9 cm (25 7/16 × 33 3/8 × 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: watercolor, l.l.: Winslow Homer 1883
• inscription: nothing on verso

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Horace D. Chapin, Boston, before 1911, gift; to his sister, Mrs. Robert B. Osgood, Boston, 1937, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Anonymous Gift

Accession Year

1939

Object Number

1939.233

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, "An American Artist in England", The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (November 1883), vol. 27 (n.s. vol. 5), pp. 13-21, p. 18
• Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer, Houghton Mifflin Company (New York, NY, 1889), p. 255
• William Howe Downes, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, MA and New York, NY, 1911), pp. 99-108, reproduced in b/w facing p. 104
• Copley Society, Copley Society Catalogue of Paintings in Water Color by Winslow Homer, John S. Sargent, Dodge MacKnight, exh. cat. (Boston, MA, 1921), cat.44
• Theodore Bolton, "Water Colors by Homer: Critique and Catalogue", Fine Arts (formerly known as The Antiquarian) (April 1932), pp. 16-20+, pg. 50
• Ann Hamilton Sayre, "Centennial of Homer Watercolors", Art News (January 25, 1936), pp.5-6, 12, 5-6, repro.
• Charles R. Henschel, Winslow Homer 1836-1910: Loan Exhibition of Water Colours Commemorating the Centenary of His Birth, exh. cat., M. Knoedler & Co. (New York, 1936), cat. 6
• Homer Saint-Gaudens, Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer, exh. cat., Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA, 1937), cat. 127
• Forbes Watson, Winslow Homer, Crown Publishers Inc. (New York, 1942), pg. 88, repro.
• Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer, MacMillan (New York, NY, 1944), pg. 79, repro. 22 of pl.
• Winslow Homer, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA, 1944), no. 46
• Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1979), CL-269, p. 297
• Abigail Booth Gerdts, Winslow Homer in Monochrome, exh. cat., Knoedler & Co. Inc. (New York, NY, 1986), p. 86
• Helen A. Cooper, Winslow Homer Watercolors, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press (Washington, D.C. and New Haven, CT, 1986), pp. 113, 119, 161, n. 14, 250; reproduced in color fig. 106
• Tony Knipe, ed., Winslow Homer: All the Cullercoats Pictures, exh. cat., Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (Sunderland, UK, 1988), pg. 107, repro. 91
• Kate F. Jennings, Winslow Homer, Crescent Books (New York, NY, 1990), p. 58
• Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Winslow Homer Watercolors, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1991), reproduced in color pl. 43
• Sue Welsh Reed and Carol Troyen, Awash in Color: Homer, Sargent, and the Great American Watercolor, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1993), pg. 113, no. 1
• Ken Chowder, "Winslow Homer: the Quintessential American Artist", Smithsonian (Washington, D.C., October 1995), vol. 26, 116-129, reproduced in color, p. 116
• Peter Neill, On a Painted Ocean: Art of the Seven Seas, New York University Press (New York, NY, 1995), reproduced in color, pp. 128-129
• 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. 216-219, reproduced as catalogue no. 125, p. 216
• Tony Harrison, Winslow Homer in Cullercoats, Station Press (Port Seton, UK, 1995), pp70, 114, repro.
• David Cordingly, Ships and Seascapes: An Introduction to Maritime Prints, Drawings and Watercolors, Philip Wilson (London, 1997), reproduced in b/w p. 130
• Miles Unger, The Watercolors of Winslow Homer, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, 2001), pg. 221, repro. 96-97.
• Tony Harrison, Winslow Homer in England, Hornby Editions (Ocean Park, ME, 2004), pp iii, 119, ill.
• Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, Spanierman Gallery (New York, 2005-2014), vol. 4.2, p. 219, no. 1169, repr. p. 219, repr. in color p. 524
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist
• 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. 161-62, cat. no. 123, reproduced in color
• Otto Ocvirk, Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice, McGraw-Hill Higher Education (New York, NY, 2008), p 228, fig. 8.5
• 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. 97, 100-101, 106, 108, fig. b (p. 101)
• Gabrielle Townsend, Winslow Homer: Aquarelles, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, France, 2011), repr. pp. 16-17
• Brian T. Allen, "Harvard's Fogg Museum Comes Back to Life with a Glorious Watercolor Show", National Review (August 10, 2023), discussed and repr.
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), repr. as pl. 7 on p. 76
• Rare display of 100+ American watercolors at Harvard University, ArtDaily, ed. Jose Villarreal (https://artdaily.cc/news/158060/Rare-display-of-100--American-watercolors-at-Harvard-University, June 2023)

Exhibition History

• Sixteenth Annual Exhibition, American Water Color Society, New York, 01/29/1883 - 02/25/1883
• Unidentified Exhibition, Doll and Richards, 1883, Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, 12/01/1883 - 12/15/1883
• Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/08/1911 - 03/08/1911
• Paintings in Water Color by Winslow Homer, John S. Sargent, Dodge MacKnight, Copley Society of Boston, 03/05/1921 - 03/22/1921
• Watercolors by Winslow Homer, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 06/01/1924 - 08/31/1924
• Water Colors by Winslow Homer, 1836 - 1910, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/16/1932 - 06/15/1932
• Winslow Homer, 1836 - 1910: Loan Exhibition of Watercolors Commemorating the Centenary of his Birth, Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York, 01/20/1936 - 02/08/1936
• Paintings and Drawings by Winslow Homer, 1836 - 1910, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1936 - 06/30/1986
• Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 01/28/1937 - 03/07/1937
• Unidentified Exhibition, Mead Art Gallery, 1940, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, 04/25/1940 - 05/09/1940
• Water Colors by Winslow Homer, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, 05/11/1940 - 06/10/1940
• Watercolors by Winslow Homer, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/09/1944 - 11/01/1944
• Winslow Homer, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 11/16/1944 - 12/17/1944
• Winslow Homer Watercolors, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 03/02/1986 - 05/11/1986; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 06/06/1986 - 07/27/1986; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 09/11/1986 - 11/02/1986
• Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 10/15/1995 - 01/28/1996; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/21/1996 - 05/26/1996
• 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
• Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 02/16/2008 - 05/11/2008
• American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2023 - 08/13/2023

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project
• Collection Highlights

Verification Level