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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

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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

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

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