For to Be a Farmer's Boy - Winslow Homer

Gift of Mrs. George T. Langhorne in memory of Edward Carson Waller

American Art Modern Art Paintings Prints

"For to Be a Farmer's Boy" by Winslow Homer (1887) Transparent and opaque watercolor, with rewetting, blotting, and scraping, heightened with gum glaze, over graphite, on thick, rough-textured ivory wove paper (lower edge trimmed).

Commentary

"For to Be a Farmer's Boy" by Winslow Homer (1887) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone. Themes to no tice include watercolor. This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection. Winslow Homer is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910. The work is cataloged within a United States cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as watercolor, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Transparent and opaque watercolor, with rewetting, blotting, and scraping, heightened with gum glaze, over graphite, on thick, rough-textured ivory wove paper (lower edge trimmed)) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (35.5 × 50.9 cm (14 × 20 1/16 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include watercolor. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/93433

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data