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A special exhibition of two American masters: Winslow Homer and William Harnett

 

This exhibition highlights two groups of works done by famous American painters around the decade of the 1870’s.

 

Winslow Homer’s early work was thematically centered on the Civil War.  His most sought after works date from the 1870’s as Homer emerges from doing commercial illustration work that appeared in periodicals like Harper’s Weekly in the form of wood engravings. About this time, Homer changes course with the financial help of his brother and focuses on painting watercolors and oil paintings.  In both wood engravings and watercolors, Homer’s most desirable images are of children.  These have universal appeal and have been collected for many decades.  The noted American Art Historian, Lloyd Goodrich, wrote a book detailing these “popular” wood engravings that were intended for viewing by the masses.    Today, these are the only affordable works by Homer.  Our offering includes many of the wood engravings of timeless images of children, and the famous Civil War image The Sharp Shooter.

 

William Harnett was an American master of tromp l’oeil still life painting.  Years ago, I acquired a group of original drawings that are juvenal works by the artist.  They were collected and documented by the author of the monograph on Harnett, Alfred Frankenstein.  They have a provenance of Frankenstein’s personal collection, back to the artist’s sister, Ella Harnett.   These drawings and their provenance are documented in After the Hunt: William Harnett and other American Still Life Painters (pages 33-35) where one of our drawings is illustrated.  Frankenstein characterizes them as “a coat-pocket accumulation of offhand scraps.  As such they reveal not only the natural bent of the artist’s mind but his poverty and frugality as well.”  They are not examples of the still life imagery that Harnett is famous for.  Instead they are small whimsical images of a young and developing talent.  They are attractively priced and offer an opportunity to afford an early original drawing by this famous still life painter.

 

An offering of works by Homer and Harnett.  Not likely to ever be repeated again.  I hope you enjoy looking at them and transcending back in time.

Gloucester Harbor

By

Winslow Homer

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On the Beach at Long Branch - The Children's Hour

By

Winslow Homer

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The Bathers

By

Winslow Homer

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The Morning Bell

By

Winslow Homer

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Back View of a Man Standing

By

William Michael Harnett

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Child at a Window

By

William Michael Harnett

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Child Looking out of a Window

By

William Michael Harnett

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Civil War Soldier and Lady

By

William Michael Harnett

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Flutist on a Garden Wall

By

William Michael Harnett

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Garden Wall with Mothers, Children, Dog and Cat

By

William Michael Harnett

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Girl in a Pony Tail

By

William Michael Harnett

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Man with a Crutch and Two Little Girls at a Table

By

William Michael Harnett

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Woman in Profile Facing Left

By

William Michael Harnett

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Woman Standing with a Minstrel

By

William Michael Harnett

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Two Standing Women

By

William Michael Harnett

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