Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011234Shepherdess
About the Artwork
Homer spent the summer of 1878 at Mountainsville, New York, where his brother's business partner, Lawson Valentine, had a country place called Houghton Farm. While there he developed pastoral images of shepherdesses. The flirtatious quality of these depictions becomes intriguing when we consider that Homer never married, and that he worked not only from female models but also sometimes from boys in girls' clothing.
Inscriptions
[falsely signed?], lower left, in graphite: HOMER / 1897 ; VERSO, center left, in black crayon : 62 [within a square]
Exhibition history
Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 28, 1937). Watercolors and Drawings form the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-28, 1939). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942). Winslow Homer: Portrait of America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 10, 1965-May 16, 1966). American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). The Tile Club and the Aesthetic Movement in America: 1877 -1887. Museums at Stony Brook (organizer) (October 9, 1999-January 23, 2000); Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT (February 5-May 7, 2000). Winslow Homer's Empire State: Houghton Farm and Beyond. Syracuse University Art Galleries, Syracuse, NY (organizer) (August 18-October 11, 2009).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)
- Date
- c. 1878
- Medium
- charcoal with brush and brown wash, heightened with white chalk; framing lines in graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 41.8 x 25.8 cm (16 7/16 x 10 3/16 in.); Image: 41 x 24.1 cm (16 1/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dr. J. A. Vincent
- Accession no.
- 1924.489
More by Winslow Homer in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011234
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