1943.303 and 482.1977 (fragment on loan from Yale University Art Gallery) © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Identification and Creation
Object Number
1943.303
People
Winslow Homer, American (Boston, MA 1836 - 1910 Prouts Neck, ME)
Title
Sea Garden, Bahamas
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1885
Culture
American
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Watercolor over graphite on heavy white wove paper
Dimensions
22.3 x 38.7 cm (8 3/4 x 15 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black watercolor, l.r.: HOMER / 1885
  • inscription: verso, graphite: 61754 [ ] ; 0000; 329 [over] 13; [encircled:] Bahamas; No. 7; W. H.; C.23614; "Sea Garden"; Hom[er?]
  • label: verso, u.l., paper and blue pencil: 329 [over] 13; [encircled:] 10
  • inscription: removed from old mount, now in curatorial file, black ink, handwritten: Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910 / "Sea-Garden, Bahamas" / ex col. Chas K. Fox (Haverhill, / Massachusetts) / [ditto "ex col"] Mrs. M. W. Freeman
Provenance
Winslow Homer, bequest; to his brother Charles S. Homer, Jr., 1910, sold; [to M. Knoedler and Co., NY, 1911], sold; [to William Macbeth Inc., NY, 1911], sold; to Charles K. Fox, Haverhill, MA, 1911, bequest; to his daughter, Mrs. Marjorie W. Freeman, Haverhill, MA, 1912, sold [through William Macbeth Inc., NY, 1931] [via Martin Birnbaum, 1932] [1]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, NY, 1933, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

[1] A letter in the curatorial file from Robert McIntyre, of William Macbeth Inc., reveals that his gallery sold the watercolor to Martin Birnbaum on December 7, 1932.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.303
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Descriptions
Description
The fragments at left and bottom, originally part of this watercolor, are on loan from the Yale University Art Gallery (Harvard Art Museums long-term loan: 482.1977; Yale University Art Gallery 1965.33.13a-b).
Publication History

Theodore Bolton, "Water Colors by Homer: Critique and Catalogue", Fine Arts (formerly known as The Antiquarian) (April 1932), pp. 16-20+, pp. 50, 52

Winslow Homer's Sub-Tropical America, exh. cat., Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL, 1968), cat. 20

Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 242

Patti Hannaway, Winslow Homer in the Tropics, Westover Publishing Company (Richmond, VA, 1973), pp. 160-161, plate 10

Marjorie B. Cohn, "Fogg Reunites Homer's Sea Garden with Long-Lost Borders", Fogg Art Museum Newsletter, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, June 1978), pp. 2-3, pp. 2-3, repro.

Helen A. Cooper, "The 'Vasari' Diary", Art News (April 1978), vol. LXXVII, no. 4, reproduced

Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1979), CL-272, p. 298

Helen A. Cooper, Winslow Homer Watercolors, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press (Washington, D.C. and New Haven, CT, 1986), pp. 139, 149, n. 16, 251; reproduced in b/w fig. 130

Gene W. Teitelbaum, "Men and Women, Boys and Girls Together", Winslow Homer: An Annual (New Albany, Indiana, 1988), pp. 3-32, p. 19, fig. 4, no. 67

Kevin M. Murphy, "Painting for Money: Winslow Homer as Entrepreneur", Winterthur Portfolio (Summer/Autumn 2002), 37, no. 2/3, pp. 147-160, p. 159

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, Spanierman Gallery (New York, 2005-2014), vol. 4.2, pp. 323-324, no. 1268a, repr. p. 324 (with Yale fragments)

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. 165-1667, cat. no. 38, reproduced in color, p. 165

Gabrielle Townsend, Winslow Homer Aquarelles, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, France, 2011), repr. p. 39

Cate McQuaid, Beyond Labels, The Boston Globe (Boston, October 18, 2015), pp. N12-N13, p. N13, repr.

Vision and Justice: A Digital Tool, website, Harvard Art Museums, 2016, http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/tour/vision-and-justice, accessed December 19, 2016

Liz Mineo, A Call To Do Justice: David E. White Jr. and His Passion for Justice, Leadership, and Public Service, Harvard Gazette, Harvard University ([e-journal], May 11, 2017), http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/army-vet-melds-leadership-service-justice-at-law-school/, accessed June 26, 2017

Colleen Walsh, "The Artist as Witness", The Harvard Gazette (September 13, 2019), e-journal, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/winslow-homers-work-as-civil-war-art-correspondent-focus-of-eyewitness-exhibit-at-harvard/, accessed September 17, 2019

Murray Whyte, [review:] "Harvard Rethinks Winslow Homer's Civil War Legacy with Provocative 'Eyewitness' Show", The Boston Globe (October 3, 2019)

Exhibition History

Water-Color Views by Winslow Homer, Reichard & Co, New York, 12/18/1885 - 12/31/1885

Watercolors by Winslow Homer, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/09/1944 - 11/01/1944

Vision and Justice: The Art of Citizenship, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/27/2016 - 01/08/2017

Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/05/2020

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