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    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    For to Be a Farmer's Boy
    Winslow Homer. For to Be a Farmer's Boy, 1887. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).

    Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

    AT-00004333

    For to Be a Farmer's Boy

    by Winslow Homer

    View at the Art Institute of Chicago

    Inscriptions

    Signed recto, lower right, in black watercolor: "Winslow Homer/1887" [over old signature, blotted out: "Winslow Homer/1887"]

    Provenance

    Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Waller, Sr. (née Mary Kirk; died 1963), Chicago, c. 1890; by descent to their daughter, Mrs. George T. Langhorne (née Mary Kirk Waller), Chicago; given to the Art Institute, 1963.

    Exhibition history

    New York, American Watercolor Society," Twenty-first Annual Exhibition," January 30–February 25, 1888, p. 22, cat. 360, as “For to be a Farmer’s Boy” (Old Song). The Art Institute of Chicago, "Chicago Collectors," September 20–October 27, 1963, pp. 5 and 26, pl. 15. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light," February 16-May 11, 2008, pp. 68 n. 2, 118, 119 (ill.), 122, 212, 213, 214, cat. by Martha Tedeschi and Kristi Dahm.

    Publications

    William Howe Downes, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer (New York, 1911), p. 281. Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Winslow Homer (New York, 1979), pp. 186, 191, and 285, pl. 28, fig. CL–103. Laura Whipple, Celebrating America: A Collection of Poems and Images of the American Spirit (New York, 1994) (ill. cover). Ann Keay Beneduce, A Weekend with Winslow Homer (New York, 1993), p. 52. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), p. 89 (ill.). Miles Unger, The Watercolors of Winslow Homer (New York, 2001), pp. 123 and 219 (ill.). William Mullen, “Beneath the Color, Secrets of an Artist,” Chicago Tribune (February 29, 2008) (ill.). Robert M. Poole, “Hidden Depths,” Smithsonian Magazine 39: 2 (May 2008), p. 90.

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Winslow Homer / American, 1836-1910
    Date
    1887
    Medium
    Transparent and opaque watercolor, with rewetting, blotting, and scraping, heightened with gum glaze, over graphite, on thick, rough-textured ivory wove paper (lower edge trimmed)
    Dimensions
    35.5 × 50.9 cm (14 × 20 1/16 in.)
    Type
    Drawing
    Classification
    watercolor
    Place
    United States
    Department
    Prints and Drawings
    Credit line
    Gift of Mrs. George T. Langhorne in memory of Edward Carson Waller
    Accession no.
    1963.760

    More by Winslow Homer in museum collections

    • Boy with Anchor

      Winslow Homer

      1873 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art

      AT-00000301
    • Coast of Maine

      Winslow Homer

      1893 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

      AT-00000603
    • The Herring Net

      Winslow Homer

      1885 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

      AT-00000846
    • Croquet Scene

      Winslow Homer

      1866 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

      AT-00000975

    Open-access museum record · AT-00004333

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