The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 17, 2025

The Brierwood Pipe
1864
(American, 1836–1910)
Framed: 68.9 x 64.1 x 9.2 cm (27 1/8 x 25 1/4 x 3 5/8 in.); Unframed: 42.8 x 37.5 cm (16 7/8 x 14 3/4 in.); Former: 69 x 64 x 8 cm (27 3/16 x 25 3/16 x 3 1/8 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1944.524
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
During the Civil War, Homer worked as an artist-reporter for the New York newspaper Harper's Weekly.Description
Homer’s subject was inspired by a sentimental poem popular at the time, in which a Civil War soldier carves a wooden pipe and daydreams of the time when the conflict will end so that he can return home. The painting depicts two volunteers for the Union Army who sport their regiment’s highly colorful uniforms, a design soon discovered as impractical due to its ability to be spotted by sharpshooters. The museum acquired this work during World War II. It seems likely that the painting’s imagery was viewed as especially significant for its wartime audience.- 1944-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OhioProbably 1940-1944Mrs. Z. Boylston Adams (Helen Foster), Brookline, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1915 - probably 1940Zabdiel Boylston Adams [1875-1940], Brookline, MA, to his wife, Mrs. Z. Boylston Adams11881-1915Annie Adams Fields (Mrs. James T. Fields) [1834-1915], Boston, MA, by bequest to her nephew, Zabdiel Boylston Adams-1881James Thomas Fields [1817-1881], Boston, MAProvenance Footnotes1 1The exact mode of transfer and date of this painting from Mr. to Mrs. Boylston Adams are unknown, but she likely received it upon his death in 1940.
- Marr, Timothy. "The American Zouave." Military Images 34, no. 4. 22-29 Reproduced: 22-23, 27.Goodrich, Lloyd, and Abigail Booth Gerdts. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. 2005.Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1911. Mentioned: P. 51Cox, Kenyon. Winslow Homer. New York: Privately printed, 1914. Mentioned: P. 18Burchfield, Louise H. “Paintings by Winslow Homer.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 33, no. 9 (November 1946): 165–71. Mentioned: P. 166; Reproduced: P. 168 www.jstor.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 543 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 187 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 187 archive.orgAdams, Celeste, Rita Myers, and Adele Z. Silver. An Introduction to American Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1972. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 10-13“A Check List. American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 1 (January 1973): 21–35. Mentioned: P. 28, no. 88 www.jstor.orgWilliams, Hermann Warner. Mirror to the American Past; A Survey of American Genre Painting: 1750-1900. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society, 1973. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 182-183, no. 176Grossman, Julian. Echo of a Distant Drum: Winslow Homer and the Civil War. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 112-113The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 231 archive.orgHendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York: Harry N. Abrams,1979. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 318, no. CL-555Ledes, Allison Eckardt. "Current and Coming: Winslow Homer and the Civil War." The Magazine Antiques 134 (August 1988): 216-230. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 216Cikovsky, Nicolai. " Winslow Homer's Unfinished Business." In American Art Around 1900: Lectures in Memory of Daniel Fraad, Doreen Bolger, and Nicolai Cikovsky, eds., 93-117. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990. Mentioned: P. 98, fig. 12; Reproduced: P. 100, fig.12Cikovsky, Nicolai. Winslow Homer. New York: Abrams,1990. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 20-21Jennings, Kate F. Winslow Homer. New York, N.Y.: Crescent Books, 1990. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 19-20Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991. Reproduced: P. 130Cikovsky, Nicolai. Winslow Homer. [New York, N.Y.]: [Rizzoli], 1992. Reproduced: Pl. 1Sears, Stephen W. The Civil War: A Treasury of Art and Literature. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1992. Reproduced: P. 145, pl. 40Cikovsky, Nicolai. "Winslow Homer." Portraits: The Lives and Works of Eminent Artists 1, no.6. Reproduced: CoverCleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: P. 106Cikovsky, Nicolai. "The School of War." In Winslow Homer, Nicolai Cikovsky and Franklin Kelly, 17-60. Washington: National Gallery of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press,1995. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 42-43, no. 3Conrads, Margaret C. Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 14, fig. 4Mitchell, Mark D. Francis A. Silva (1835-1886): In His Own Light. New York, N.Y.: Berry-Hill Galleries, 2002. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 22, fig. 7Jennings, Kate F. Winslow Homer. North Dighton, Mass: JG Press/World Publications Group, 2004. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 19-20Adams, Henry. What's American About American Art?: A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 96-97Stebbins, Theodore E. American Paintings at Harvard. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Art Museums; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Mentioned: Vol. II, P. 148"Welcome Back." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 48, no. 5 (May/June 2008): 5-6. Mentioned: P. 6Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum; New Haven, Connecticut: in association with Yale University Press, 2012. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 154-155, no. 53
- The Civil War and American Art. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (organizer) (November 16, 2012-April 27, 2013); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (May 21-September 2, 2013).Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, Winslow Homer (15 October 1995-28 January 1996); traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (21 February-26 May 1996); New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (20 June-22 September 1996); illus. no. 3, pg. 43.Winslow Homer. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (October 15, 1995-January 28, 1996); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (February 21-May 26, 1996).San Fransisco, The Fine Arts Museum of San Fransisco, Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War (2 July-18 September 1988); traveled to Portland, Portland Museum of Art (8 October-18 December 1988); cat. no. 8, fig. 8.1, pp. 166-172; also included references to CMA painting pp. 21, 72-73, 111-112, 115, 119, 161, 195-196, 208-215, 236.New York, Dodworth's Studio Building, Fourth Artists' Reception (before 25 March 1864); see Winslow Homer: The Paintings of the Civil War p. 21.New York, National Academy of Design, Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition (April, 1864), no. 140, listed p. 451.Winslow Homer: Portrait of America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 10, 1965-May 16, 1966).The Civil War: The Artists' Record. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (November 18-December 31, 1961); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (February 1-March 4, 1962).Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Civil War: The Artists' Record (18 November-31 December 1961); traveled to Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts (1 February-4 March 1962); pp. 63-64, illus. no. 46, p. 66.Oxford, OH, Miami University, Sesquicentennial Celebration (15 May-15 June 1959).35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).Exhibition of the Month: Atmospheric Depth in Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 31, 1947).Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, Winslow Homer (16 November-17 December 1944), no. 2.
- {{cite web|title=The Brierwood Pipe|url=false|author=Winslow Homer|year=1864|access-date=17 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.524