Thomas French Fine Art
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
On the Beach at Long Branch - The Children's Hour
By
Winslow Homer
The Bathers
By
Winslow Homer
The Morning Bell
By
Winslow Homer
Back View of a Man Standing
By
William Michael Harnett
Child at a Window
By
William Michael Harnett
Child Looking out of a Window
By
William Michael Harnett
Civil War Soldier and Lady
By
William Michael Harnett
Flutist on a Garden Wall
By
William Michael Harnett
Garden Wall with Mothers, Children, Dog and Cat
By
William Michael Harnett
Girl in a Pony Tail
By
William Michael Harnett
Man with a Crutch and Two Little Girls at a Table
By
William Michael Harnett
Woman in Profile Facing Left
By
William Michael Harnett
Woman Standing with a Minstrel
By
William Michael Harnett
Two Standing Women
By
William Michael Harnett