Winslow Homer the Clark Collection

Marc Simpson

Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is one of the core figures of nineteenth-century American art. While most well-known for his oil paintings of Civil War scenes and the windswept Atlantic coastline, Homer’s oeuvre encompasses a variety of themes, ranging from childhood games to the life-and-death struggles of man and nature. The Clark Art Institute holds one of the greatest collections of Homer’s work across all media, including wood engravings, etchings, watercolors, drawings, and paintings from nearly all phases of his career. The collection was assembled predominately by Robert Sterling Clark (1877–1956), who purchased his first Winslow Homer painting in 1915 then Two Guides in 1916 and maintained a passion for the artist throughout the rest of his collecting career, acquiring the small oil Playing a Fish in 1955.

This book examines Robert Sterling Clark as a collector of Homer’s work and the Clark’s extensive holdings of the artist. More than thirty entries discuss the role of individual works in Homer’s oeuvre and their larger significance to the art world. An illustrated checklist provides information on titles, dates, and media for the entire collection.

Marc Simpson is associate director of the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art and an expert on nineteenth-century American art.

240 pages
438 color and 19 black-and-white illustrations
2013
ISBN 978-0-300-19194-3 (hardcover)