Tuesday, December 2, 2014

WINSLOW HOMER at AUCTION

  • Winslow Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1836, the second of the three children, all sons, of Henrietta Benson and Charles Savage Homer. His artistic education consisted chiefly of his apprenticeship to the Boston commercial lithographer John H. Bufford, and a few lessons in painting from Frédéric Rondel after that. Following his apprenticeship, Homer worked as a free-lance illustrator for such magazines as Harper's Weekly.
    In 1859 he moved to New York City, where began his career as a painter. He visited the front during the Civil War and his first important paintings were of Civil War subjects. In 1867 he spent a year in France. At Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1873 he began to paint in watercolor. In 1875 he submitted his last drawing to Harper's Weekly, ending his career as an illustrator. He traveled widely in the 1870s in New York State, to Virginia, and Massachusetts, and in 1881 he began a two-year stay in England, living in Cullercoats, near Newcastle.
    Returning to America in 1883, he settled at Prout's Neck, Maine, where he would live for the rest of his life. He continued to travel widely, to the Adirondacks, Canada, Bermuda, Florida, and the Caribbean, in all those places painting the watercolors upon which much of his later fame would be based. In 1890 he painted the first of the series of seascapes at Prout's Neck that were the most admired of his late paintings in oil. Homer died in his Prout's Neck studio on September 30, 1910. 

    Sotheby's November 10, 2014



    WINSLOW HOMER
    CHILDREN ON THE BEACH (WATCHING THE TIDE GO OUT; WATCHING THE BOATS)
    LOT SOLD. 4,533,000

    Sotheby's December 10, 2011



    WINSLOW HOMER
    1836 - 1910

    ORANGE TREES AND GATE

    LOT SOLD. 1,314,500



    WINSLOW HOMER
    1836 - 1910
    ORANGE TREES AND GATE
    LOT SOLD. 1,314,500


     Sotheby’s May 21, 2009



    Winslow Homer’s  1886 watercolor Spanish Moss at Tampa (est. $600/800,000).

    Between 1884 and 1905, Homer made several trips from Maine to the tropics, visiting the Bahamas, Florida, Cuba and Bermuda. In these new climates, Homer found both new challenges and new inspiration, and his Florida watercolors are notable for a wide range of techniques that he employed to portray the exotic landscape, from complex layers of color to delicate transparent washes. These scenes have a spontaneity and freshness that is strikingly different from earlier works.

    Homer’sThree Figures in an Interior from 1885 (est. $150/250,000) is one of only a handful of works that the artist painted during his travels to Cuba. The previously unknown watercolor was discovered by a man visiting Southern Ireland on a fishing trip. He found the work lying near his favourite fishing spot and took it home. In May of last year, he brought it to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow valuation day at Althorp House in Northamptonshire. The fine art dealer Philip Mould identified the watercolor as the work of Winslow Homer, and pointed out that it was signed. Mould commented, “[Homer] was an amazing painter, he was an impressionist, he was an illustrator, he travelled on the Continent, but basically he’s claimed by the Americans; he’s one of the great artists who define American heritage.”

    Christie's



    Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
    Herring Fishing
    PRICE REALIZED



    Boating Boys in Gloucester
    PRICE REALIZED



    A Shady Spot, Houghton Farm
    PRICE REALIZED
    $965,000



    The Boat Builders
    PRICE REALIZED



    Nassau: Water and Sailboat
    PRICE REALIZED
    $650,500



    Gloucester Harbor, Fishing Fleet
    PRICE REALIZED
    $605,000



    Florida Jungle
    PRICE REALIZED



    Two Men Rowing on a Lake
    PRICE REALIZED



    Portrait of Elizabeth Loring Grant
    PRICE REALIZED
    $313,000



    Girl Seated in a Grove
    PRICE REALIZED
    $290,500



    Prout's Neck
    PRICE REALIZED
    $269,000



    Young Woman
    PRICE REALIZED
    $242,500





     






































    Bonhams 2012





    Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910); 
    Perils of the Sea;
    Sold for US$ 5,625 
    Bonhams 2011






    Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910);
    Mending the Tears;
    US$ 4,000 - 6,000
    Swann June 12, 2014


    WINSLOW HOMER 
    Study: Fresh Air
    Estimate $40,000 - $60,000
    Price Realized (with Buyer's Premium) $106,250

Swann 2010



  • WINSLOW HOMER 
    Spring:The Shepherdess of Houghton Farm
    Estimate $20,000 - $30,000
    Price Realized (with Buyer's Premium) $20,400