A pile of six dried fish with open mouths rest on a brown table.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The backs of the fishes are painted a silver-blue color, with golden-orange bellies, indicating the smoking process. No background except for darker brown behind the lighter brown table. All the fish have opened mouths and sunken eyes and are placed on top of each other in a pile of various angles. One fish is separate from the pile in front, right side up, mouth open, with its head pointing to the right. It’s signed in lower right in red.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1926.33.81
People
John William Hill, American (London, England 1812 - 1879 West Nyack, NY)
Title
Smoked Herring
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1860-1865
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/306287

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor over graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
19.1 x 32.8 cm (7 1/2 x 12 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: red gouache, l.r.: J. W. Hill

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Fine Arts Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; transferred to Fogg Art Museum, 1926.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Fine Arts Department, Harvard University
Accession Year
1926
Object Number
1926.33.81
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, Melissa Renn, and Susan C. Ricci, The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2007), pp. 58, 92, pl. 6
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 260-61, cat. 209, ill.

Exhibition History

  • The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/07/2007 - 07/08/2007

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