Lawson Valentine

American, 1827 - 1891

Explore Selected Works

Winslow Homer, On the Fence, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.22

On the Fence

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.22

Winslow Homer, Warm Afternoon, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.24

Warm Afternoon

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown ·  Accession ID  1994.59.24

Close to us, a young man and four boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea fringed with white foam in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and wispy gray and white clouds skip across the pale blue sky. The sun skims along the scene from our right so the boys’ ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. They wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants in shades of brown, slate blue, white, and red. The young man and boys all face our left and they lean against and into the boat as it cants up to our right. The boy nearest the sail to our left reclines across the bow. Next to him, to our left, is a boy sitting on the edge of the boat partially hidden by the sail’s mast. To the right another boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest sits on the floor of the boat as he maneuvers the sail with a rope. Closer to us and to our right, a younger boy sits with his bare feet pressed together in front of his bent knees on the back edge of the boat, gazing into the distance over his right shoulder as he handles the tiller. Directly beneath his bent knee the boat’s name is painted on the flat stern: “FLIRT.” The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower left corner: “WINSLOW HOMER 1874.”
Winslow Homer, The Flirt, 1874, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.18

The Flirt

Winslow Homer · 1874 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.18

A boy leads a girl by her hand across three wooden steps that allow for passage over a fence in this horizontal watercolor. The fence spans the width of the paper, but angles slightly away from us as it moves off to our left. The fence is made up of four widely spaced horizontal rails across vertical posts. The boy and girl face away from us but have pale or tanned skin and brown hair. The girl is on our side of the fence, her front foot on the top step. She wears a long white dress edged with ruffles and shaded with slate blue. Her hair is tied with a blue ribbon, and another ribbon flies from the back of her straw-colored hat. The boy begins to step down on the far side of the fence. He wears tan overalls, a gray shirt, and a wide-brimmed straw hat. The ankle we can see is bare. A tree branch with dark green leaves dips down into the scene from the upper right corner. A wash of dark green on the far side of the fence suggests a shrub in an otherwise flat field of fresh, celery green. The top rail of the fence overlaps the horizon, where a light blue hill rises to fill much of the upper half of the composition. A narrow wedge of cream-white sky angles into our view at the top left. The artist signed the lower right corner, “HOMER.”
Winslow Homer, On the Stile, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.23

On the Stile

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.23

Winslow Homer, A Sick Chicken, 1874, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.21

A Sick Chicken

Winslow Homer · 1874 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1994.59.21

Winslow Homer, The Green Hill, 1878, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.25

The Green Hill

Winslow Homer · 1878 · watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gray-green wove paper faded to brown ·  Accession ID  1994.59.25