1924.30: Canoe in Rapids

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1924.30

People

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

Title

Canoe in Rapids

Other Titles

Title: The Head Guide
Former Title: Men in a Canoe

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1897

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/306171

Physical Descriptions

Medium

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

Dimensions

35.4 x 53.3 cm (13 15/16 x 21 in.)
frame: 62.2 × 79.4 × 1.3 cm (24 1/2 × 31 1/4 × 1/2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: watercolor, l.l.: HOMER/ 1897
• exhibition label: removed from reverse, paper: National Gallery of Art / Washington D. C. / Exhibition: Winslow Homer Watercolors / Date: 2 March -- 11 May 1986. Cat. #191 / Artist: Winslow Homer / Title: Canoe in the Rapids / Lender: Fogg Art Museum
• inscription: verso, upper left, graphite: X
• label: back of frame, handwritten:: University of Chicago / Smart Gallery / Color in Art / TR 5416

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Winslow Homer, sold [through Doll and Richards, Boston, 1899]; to Albert Smith Bigelow, Boston, 1899, sold [through his son, Albert Francis Bigelow [1]]; to Fogg Art Museum, April 1924

[1] All correspondence in object file related to sale, in March and April 1924, is between Albert F. Bigelow and Edward W. Forbes, director of the Fogg Art Museum.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Louise E. Bettens Fund

Accession Year

1924

Object Number

1924.30

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

• William Howe Downes, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, MA and New York, NY, 1911), pg. 289
• Arthur Pope, "Water-Colours by Winslow Homer", Fogg Art Museum Notes, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, June 1926), vol. II, no. 2, pp. 42-48, repr. p. 45
• Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1927), repr. in b/w p. 61
• Sixth Loan Exhibition: Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Thomas Eakins, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1930), cat. 40
• Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1931), repr. in b/w p. 76
• M. A. Banks, The Exhibition of Homer Watercolors, Bulletin of The Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI, April 1931), vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 23-26, pg. 25, repro.
• Theodore Bolton, "Water Colors by Homer: Critique and Catalogue", Fine Arts (formerly known as The Antiquarian) (April 1932), pp. 16-20+
• Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer Centenary Exhibition, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, 1936), cat. 85, repro.
• Winslow Homer: Water Colors, Prints and Drawings, exh. cat., Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA, 1936), pg. 21, repro.
• George Henry Lovett Smith, "The Grasp of the Moment," with checklist for Winslow Homer exhibition, Concert Bulletin for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Boston, 1937), pg. 361
• [Unidentified article], Boston Post (Boston, MA, April 17, 1937)
• Homer Saint-Gaudens, Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer, exh. cat., Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA, 1937), cat. 54
• Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer, MacMillan (New York, NY, 1944), repro. no. 44 of pl.
• Winslow Homer, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA, 1944), no. 55
• A Loan Exhibition of Winslow Homer for the Benefit of the New York Botanical Garden, exh. cat., Wildenstein & Company (New York, 1947), p. 38, cat. no. 76, repr.
• John Coolidge, ed., Picture Book: Survey of the Fogg Collections, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1951), vol. 1, cat. no. 24, n.p.
• Marco Valsecchi, Mostra di Pittura Americana del XIX Secolo, exh. cat., De Luca Editore (Rome, Italy, 1954), no. 79
• Lloyd Goodrich, "Winslow Homer", Perspectives U.S.A., Intercultural Publications (New York, Winter 1956), no. 14, pp. 44-54, no. 16, repro.
• Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1958), cat. 160
• Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1959), cat. 135
• Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work, C. N. Potter (New York, NY, 1961), p. 248, reproduced p. 163
• James Thomas Flexner, That Wilder Image: The Painting of America's Native School from Thomas Cole to Winslow Homer, Little, Brown & Company (Boston, MA, 1962), p. 352, reproduced no. 108
• William E. Steadman, Yankee Painter: A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Graphics by Winslow Homer, exh. cat., University of Arizona Art Gallery (Tucson, AZ, 1963), cat. 52, pg. 39, repro.
• Alan Bowness, ed., Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, F. Watts (New York, NY, 1965), reproduced, p. 56
• Philip C. Beam, Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck, Little, Brown & Company (Boston, MA, 1966), p. 164; reproduced fig. 65, p. 165
• [Reproduction only], Yankee, (March 1967)., reproduced in color, pp. 90-92
• Walter Koschatzky, Das Aquarell (Vienna and Munich, 1969), reproduced, no. 21
• John Wilmerding, Winslow Homer, Praeger Publishers (New York, NY, 1972), p. 190, pl. 5-6
• Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY, 1973), cat. 144
• James N. Carpenter, Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1974), p. 43, cat. 6, ill.
• Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1979), CL-254, p. 297
• Helen A. Cooper, Winslow Homer Watercolors, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press (Washington, D.C. and New Haven, CT, 1986), pp. 205, 254; reproduced in color fig. 191
• Gene W. Teitelbaum, "Winslow Homer in Canada", Winslow Homer: An Annual (1987), p. 3-32, no. 5
• Paul Jamieson, "Rights of Passage", Adirondack Life (May 1988 - June 1988), vol. XIX, no. 3, pp. 44-49+, reproduced pp. 46-47
• Kate F. Jennings, Winslow Homer, Crescent Books (New York, NY, 1990), p. 92
• Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Winslow Homer Watercolors, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1991), reproduced in color, pl. 77
• Faith Andrews Bedford, Frank W. Benson, American Impressionist, Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1994), reproduced in b/w p. 183, plate 116
• Sarah Burns, "Revitalizing the 'Painted-Out' North: Winslow Homer, Manly Health, and New England Regionalism in Turn-of-the-Century America.", American Art, National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C., Summer 1995), vol. IX, no. 2, pp. 20-37, details reproduced in color on cover and p. 20, fig. 10, p. 31
• David Tatham, Fishing in the North Woods: Winslow Homer, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Universe Publishing (Boston, 1995), repr. p. 72 (color)
• 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), pp. 342, reproduced no. 205
• Sarah Burns, Inventing the Modern Artist: Art and Culture in Gilded Age America, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1996), p. 211, fig. 86
• Miles Unger, The Watercolors of Winslow Homer, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, 2001), pp. 170, 218, repro. 178-79
• Robert J. Demarest, Traveling with Winslow Homer, America's Premier Artist/Angler, Apple Trees Productions (New York, 2002), fig. 57 (color), also repr. on paperback cover (detail)
• Patricia Junker and Sarah Burns, Winslow Homer: Artist and Angler, exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Fort Worth, TX and San Francisco, CA, 2002), cat. no. 38, repr. (color), pp. 148, 230
• Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, Spanierman Gallery (New York, 2005-2014), vol. 5, p. 244, no. 1633, repr. p. 245
• 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. 174, cat. 133, ill. p. 175
• 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), p. 168, fig. 28 (p. 166)
• Gabrielle Townsend, Winslow Homer: Aquarelles, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, France, 2011), repr. p. 84
• Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims, Canoes: A Natural History in North America, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, 2016), repr. p. xvii and cover (detail)
• Dana E. Byrd and Frank H. Goodyear III, Winslow Homer and the Art of the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting, exh. cat., Bowdoin College Museum of Art and Yale University Press (Brunswick, Maine, 2018), pl. 63, detail repr. p. 141
• 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. 10 on p. 79

Exhibition History

• Life and Scenes in the Province of Quebec, Canada, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 02/12/1898 - 03/20/1898; Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York, 04/01/1898 - 05/30/1898
• Water Colors by Winslow Homer of Life and Scenes in the Province of Quebec, Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, 03/17/1899 - 03/29/1899
• Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/08/1911 - 03/08/1911
• Sixth Loan Exhibition: Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Thomas Eakins, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 05/01/1930 - 05/31/1930
• Exhibition of Water Colors by Winslow Homer, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 02/06/1931 - 03/01/1931
• Unidentified Exhibition, Princeton University, 1931, Princeton University, Princeton, 12/28/1931 - 02/01/1932
• Water Colors by Winslow Homer, 1836 - 1910, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/16/1932 - 06/15/1932
• Watercolors by 12 Americans, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 05/22/1933 - 06/26/1933
• [American Paintings], Lyman Allen Museum, New London, 03/02/1934 - 04/23/1934
• Paintings and Drawings by Winslow Homer, 1836 - 1910, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1936 - 06/30/1986
• Century Loan Exhibition as a Memorial to Winslow Homer, Prout's Neck Association, Prout's Neck, 07/18/1936 - 08/02/1936
• Winslow Homer: Water Colors, Prints and Drawings, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 09/24/1936 - 10/25/1936; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, 10/31/1936 - 11/30/1936; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 12/15/1936 - 01/15/1937
• [Winslow Homer exhibition], Symphony Hall, Boston, 01/01/1937 - 12/31/1937
• Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 01/28/1937 - 03/07/1937
• 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
• A Loan Exhibition of Works by Winslow Homer for the Benefit of the New York Botanical Gardens, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York, 02/19/1947 - 03/22/1947
• Unidentified Exhibition, Wesleyan University, 1948, Davison Art Center, Middletown, 04/01/1948 - 05/13/1948
• Exhibit of American Watercolors, Albertina Gallery, Vienna, 07/23/1949 - 01/30/1950
• Aspects of American Realism, Davison Art Center, Middletown, 05/21/1951 - 06/02/1951
• Water Colors, Drawings, and Wood Engravings by Winslow Homer from the Collections of Eight East Coast Museums, Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, 02/03/1952 - 02/24/1952
• Nineteenth Century American Paintings, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 03/01/1953 - 04/30/1953; Kunsthaus Munich, Munich, 05/01/1953 - 05/31/1953; Kunsthalle Hamburger - see Hamburger Kunsthalle, 07/01/1953 - 07/31/1953; Charlottenburger Schloss, Berlin, 09/08/1953 - 10/13/1953; Kunstsammlunger der Stadt, Dusseldorf, 11/01/1953 - 12/15/1953; Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Roma, Rome, 01/16/1954 - 02/16/1954; Palazzetto Reale, Milan, 02/18/1954 - 03/15/1954; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 04/21/1954 - 05/23/1954
• The Art of Winslow Homer, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 11/01/1954 - 11/21/1954; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, 12/01/1954 - 12/21/1954
• Unidentified Exhibition, Thomas Crane Public Library, 1955, Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, 08/15/1955 - 08/20/1955
• American Paintings from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Symphony Hall, Boston, 02/21/1958 - 03/15/1958
• Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 11/23/1958 - 01/04/1959; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 01/29/1959 - 03/08/1959; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 03/26/1959 - 05/03/1959
• Concepts of the Rural and Industrial in American Art and Architecture, Davison Art Center, Middletown, 10/13/1961 - 12/19/1961
• Yankee Painter: A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils, Watercolors and Graphics by Winslow Homer, University of Arizona, Tucson, 10/11/1963 - 12/01/1963
• Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Lakeview Center for Arts and Sciences, Peoria, 03/27/1965 - 04/28/1965
• Watercolors from the Fogg: An Historical Collection, St. Paul's School, Concord, 10/12/1971 - 11/20/1971
• Winslow Homer, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 04/03/1973 - 06/24/1973
• Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/25/1974 - 06/16/1974
• 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, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 06/17/1996 - 09/22/1996
• Casting a Spell: Winslow Homer, Artist and Angler, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 12/07/2002 - 02/09/2003; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 04/11/2003 - 06/22/2003
• 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
• Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 06/22/2018 - 10/28/2018
• Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/05/2020

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