The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

The Ghost Story

1887

Walter MacEwen

(American, 1860–1943)
America
oil on canvas
Unframed: 121 x 191.5 cm (47 5/8 x 75 3/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness 1923.416
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The women in this painting wear the traditional clothing of Volendam, a fishing village located in the province of North Holland.

Description

During the 1880s, the Netherlands became a magnet for several American artists, among them Walter MacEwen. His most famed painting, The Ghost Story, presents a group of individuals in a Dutch interior listening with rapt attention to spooky narration delivered by a woman at a spinning wheel. A young girl clutches her doll in fascination.
  • Mrs. Edward S. Harkness.
  • "The Ghost Story by Walter McEwen." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10, no. 7 (July, 1923): 123-130. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 124-125
    Boller, Susanne. "The Munich Men - Amerikanische Maler der Munchner Schule." In Es war einmal in Amerika: 300 Jahre US-Amerikanische Kunst. Barbara Schaefer and Anita Hachmann. Köln: Wienand Verlag : Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 2018. Reproduced: p. 109. Abb. 8
    Barendse, Linda. De Schilders Langs de IJssel. Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2019. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78, afb. 67
    Naeem, Asma. Out of Earshot: Sound, Technology, and Power in American Art, 1860-1900. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 148, fig. 60
  • Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art. The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (June 12-September 5, 2021); Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (October 7, 2021-January 2, 2022); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (February 19-May 15, 2022).
    Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914. Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (organizer) (September 26, 2009-January 3, 2010).
    Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (9/26/2009 - 1/3/2010): "Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914", ex. cat. no. 34, p. 148-149.
    Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition (25 January - 15 April 1990), p. 182-3, no. 203, p. 285, color ill. p. 184.
    Detroit, MI, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Quest for Unity: American Art Between World’s Fairs, 1876-1893 (22 August - 30 October 1983), no. 150.
    Cleveland, OH, East Cleveland Public Library (14 March - 27 April 1978).
    Paris, Le Salon de 1888 (1888), p. 28-9, ill. p. 28.
    Paris, Universal Exposition, (1889) cat. no. 203; catalogue reproduced in Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition listed and illus. p. 285; painting won the Silver Medal (Deuxième Medaille).
    Paris 1889 states page 182-183 that this work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1890, but no records from the AIC can be found to confirm this.
    Chicago, IL, United States, Gallery 9, Oil Paintings, Fine Arts Palace, World’s Columbian Exposition (1893); listed cat. no. 801, p. 59 as Telling Ghost Stories.
    Antwerp, Universal Exposition (1894); painting won Medaille d’Honneur.
    Miliken’s July 1923 Bulletin article notes that with this painting, MacEwen was Hors Concours at Paris, 1890.
    Vienna, International Exposition, (1902); painting won Grande Medaille d’Or .
  • {{cite web|title=The Ghost Story|url=false|author=Walter MacEwen|year=1887|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.416