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Early Morning After a Storm at Sea

1900-1903

Winslow Homer

(American, 1836-1910)

America, late 19th-early 20th Century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 111 x 160 x 12 cm (43 11/16 x 63 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 76.8 x 127 cm (30 1/4 x 50 in.)

Gift of J. H. Wade 1924.195

Location

208 American Gilded Age and Realism

Description

The powerful Atlantic surf pounding against the desolate coast of Prouts Neck, Maine, provided primary subject matter for the dramatic paintings that Homer created during his final decades. This example, which the artist proclaimed as "the best picture of the sea that I have painted," was initially conceived as a watercolor. Undertaking the composition in oil after a lapse of nearly two decades, Homer patiently waited for the appropriate atmospheric conditions, executing the work in four different sessions spread over two years.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower left: "HOMER / 1902"

Provenance

1924-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1924

(Frank Rehn, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1918-1924

Cornelius Vanderbilt Barton, New York, NY, consigned to Frank Rehn, Inc.

1917-1918

(M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, sold to Cornelius Vanderbilt Barton)1 ¹

1904-1917

William K. Bixby [1857-1931], St. Louis, MO, returned to Knoedler & Co.

1903-1904

(M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, sold to William K. Bixby)1 ²

Provenance Footnotes

¹1Bixby returned the painting to Knoedler in December 1917 (stock no. C 4847), and in March 1918 the gallery sold it to Barton.

²1Knoedler represented the painting on Homer's instruction. Some versions of this provenance begin with Chicago dealer William O'Brien. However, he represented the work only briefly and failed to sell it. In 1900 O'Brien approached Homer, proposing to act as an agent to solicit a new painting. Homer accepted O'Brien's proposition in July 1900, and on November 14, 1902, Homer informed O'Brien that the so-called "O'Brien picture," as he referred to the painting, had been sent. He did not consider O'Brien as having a claim on the work, but offered him the first opportunity to show and sell it as a courtesy. However, the painting had to be returned to New York by January 8, 1903 in time for an exhibition at the Union League Club. Thus, O'Brien's association with the painting lasted just six weeks.

Provenance Citations

Abigail Booth Gerdts, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, March 31, 2013, in CMA curatorial file

New York Tribune, March 15, 1924, in CMA curatorial file.

W.M.M., “Early Morning After a Storm at Sea by Winslow Homer,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11.3 (March 1924): 51-53.

Abigail Booth Gerdts, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, March 31, 2013, in CMA curatorial file.

W.M.M., “Early Morning After a Storm at Sea by Winslow Homer,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11.3 (March 1924): 51-53.

W.M.M., “Early Morning After a Storm at Sea by Winslow Homer,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11.3 (March 1924): 51-53

Winslow Homer, Series IV. Inventory cards, 1859-1971, M. Knoedler & Co. Records, box 135, Getty Research Institute

Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries records, Miscellaneous Records: Lists of Paintings, 1920-1968, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. [Reel 5872 (87-725)].

Citations

City Art Museum of St. Louis. Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists. St. Louis, Mo: The Museum, 1900. Mentioned: p. 49, #120

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Reproduced: p. 34 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 42 archive.org

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 14 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 549 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 187 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 187 archive.org

Hamilton, George Heard. 19th and 20th Century Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1970. Reproduced: p. 110, fig. 95

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 232 archive.org

Ross, Clifford, Jay A. Clarke, Phong Bui, and Orville Schell. Hurricane Waves. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 11, fig. 3

Athens, Elizabeth, Brandon Ruud and Martha Tedeschi. Coming Away: Winslow Homer & England. Worcester, MA : Worcester Art Museum ; Milwaukee, WI : Milwaukee Art Museum ; New Haven, CT : in association with Yale University Press, 2017. Reproduced: p. 149, cat. # 67; p. 81, fig. 10 (detail): Mention: p. 56, 166

American Art Review. "Coming Away: Winslow Homer and England." American Art Review 30, no. 3 (May/June 2018): 54-57. Reproduced: p. 56, top

Exhibition history

New York, Union League Club, Paintings by Contemporary Americans (8-10 January 1903).

New York, Society of American Artists, Twenty-Fifth Annual Exhibition (28 March-3 May 1903).

Pittsburgh, The Carnegie Institute, The Eighth Annual Exhibition at The Carnegie Institute (5 November 1903-1 January 1904), no. 75.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Seventy-Third Annual Exhibition (25 January-5 March 1904)

St. Louis, Louisiana Purchase Universal Exposition (May-December, 1904)

Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists (11 May-1 September 1910); cat. no. 117, listed p. 38.

St. Louis, City Art Museum of St. Louis, Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists (September 15 - November 15, 1910); cat. 120.

New York City, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art Sixth Loan Exhibition: Winslow Homer, Albert P. Ryder, Thomas Eakins (May, 1930), fig. 17.

Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Winslow Homer 1836-1910 (2 May-8 June 1936), fig. 29.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Official Art Exhibit of The Great Lakes Exposition (26 June-4 October 1936), no. 359, listed pp. 133-134.

Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Annual Exhibition of American Art (2 April-3 May 1937); cat. no. 32.

New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Winslow Homer: Centenary Exhibition (15 December 1936-15 January 1937), fig. 33, illus.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer (28 January-7 March 1937); traveled to Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, (March 1937-May 1937) pp. 7-13 fig. 29.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Exhibition of American Painting From 1860 Until Today at The Cleveland Museum of Art (23 June-4 October 1937), no. 85, p. 26.

Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, Winslow Homer (16 November-17 December 1944), no. 82, p. 7.

New York, Wildenstein for the Benefit of The New York Botanical Garden, Winslow Homer (19 February-22 March 1947), no. 37.

Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, The Coast and the Sea: A Survey of American Marine Painting (19 November 1948-16 January 1949); cat. no. 61.

Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, Chief Movements in Modern American Painting 1900-1950 (14 November 1951-6 January 1952)

Frankfurt, Stadelsches Kunstitut, Hundert Jahre Amerikanische Malerei 1800-1900 (14 March-3 May 1953); traveled to Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (15 May-28 June 1953); Hanburg, Kunsthalle (18 July-30 August 1953); (in addition shows were added in Berlin and Düsseldorf-see Whitney Museum catalogue for further information); cat. no. 45, illus. fig. 32.

Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Mostra Di Pittura Americana Del XIX Secolo (19 January-7 February 1954), no. 82; seems to also have traveled to Milan (see Whitney Museum catalogue for further information).

New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, American Painting in the Nineteenth Century, (22 April-23 May 1954), cat. no. 86.

Oguinquit, ME, Museum of Art, Summer Exhibition (1 July-12 September 1954), cat. no. 8; illus.

Pittsburgh, The Carnegie Institute, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century (1957); traveled to Utica, The Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art; Manchester, The Currier Gallery of Art, cat. no. 62.

Washington, D. C., The National Gallery of Art, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition (23 November 1958-4 January 1959); traveled to New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (29 January-8 March 1959), fig. 74.

Tucson, University of Arizona Art Gallery, Yankee Painter: A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Graphics by Winslow Homer (11 October-1 December 1963), cat. no. 31, illus. p. 45.

Akron, Akron Institute of Art, Retrospective on Winslow Homer (25 March-11 May 1969).

Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776-1976 (6 March-11 April 1976); traveled to Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, (5 May-13 June 1976); Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art (4 July-15 August 1976); Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art (8 Sept

Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 23 - May 18, 2003. "Cleveland Collects American Art of the Gilded Age" no catalogue.

Portland Museum of Art, ME (9/20/2012 - 12/30/2012): "Weatherbeaten: The Late Paintings of Winslow Homer", fig. 10, p. 100.

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-October 4, 1937).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 23-October 25, 1950).

Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Reckoning with Winslow Homer: His Late Works and Their Influence. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-November 25, 1990); Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (December 16, 1990-February 10, 1991); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (March 16-May 12, 1991).

Weatherbeaten: The Late Paintings of Winslow Homer. Portland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 20-December 30, 2012).

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{{cite web|title=Early Morning After a Storm at Sea|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.195|author=Winslow Homer|year=1900-1903|access-date=09 April 2020|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Early Morning After a Storm at Sea

Early Morning After a Storm at Sea

Winslow Homer

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