
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00004333For to Be a Farmer's Boy
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.
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
Open-access museum record · AT-00004333
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