Playing a Fish

1875, reworked in the 1890s

When Homer began this oil painting in 1875, he based it on a watercolor he made of his friend Eliphalet Terry during a fishing expedition to the Adirondack Mountains in New York a year earlier. While Terry is recognizable in the watercolor, in this painting he has become the quintessential outdoorsman—alone in a serene landscape, focused on reeling in his catch. Homer reworked this picture twenty years later, turning the original rowboat into a canoe and giving the blue sky the pink and ivory glow of twilight.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	11 11/16 x 18 15/16 in. (29.7 x 48.1 cm) Frame: 20 1/4 x 27 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (51.4 x 69.9 x 8.3 cm)
Object Number	1955.773
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Winslow Homer, Playing a Fish, 1875, reworked in the 1890s, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.773

Select Bibliography

Babcock Galleries. Works by Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. New York, NY: Babcock Galleries, 1941. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Sixteen: Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1961. Brockton Art Center-Fuller Memorial. Selections: Three Centuries of New England Art from New England Museums. Exhibition catalogue. Brockton, MA: Brockton Art Center-Fuller Memorial, 1969. O'Brien, Peggy. Adirondack Paintings. Exhibition cattalogue. Plattsburgh, NY: State University of New York, College at Plattsburgh, 1972 Murphy, Alexandra. Winslow Homer in the Clark Collection. Exhibition catalogue. With contributions by Rafael Fernandez and Jennifer Gordon. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1986. Brush Gallery. The Sprit and the Myth: Adirondack Sporting Art 1860-1919. Exhibition catalogue. Canton, NY: St. Lawrence University, 1992. Henrik Mayer.. "Guide Fishing by Winslow Homer.". 30.. John Herron Art Institute Bulletin.. June 1943.. John Herron Art Institute. One Hundred Five Paintings in the John Herron Art Museum. Indianapolis: Art Association of Indianapolis, 1951. Adirondack Museum. Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks. Exhibition catalogue. Blue Mountain Lake, NY: Adirondack Museum, 1959. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York: Abrams, 1979. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Cooper, Helen A. Winslow Homer Watercolors. Exhibition catalogue. Washington: National Gallery of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Conrads, Margaret C. American Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Tatham, David. Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996. Sulavik, Stephen B. The Evolution and Identification of the Adirondack Guide Boat Tatham, David. Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks. 1996. Reprint, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004. Goodrich, Lloyd. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. Edited and expanded by Abigail Booth Gerdts. 5 vols. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005.

Provenance

Nicholls Collection, Boston; [Schneider-Gabriel Galleries, New York, sold to John Herron Art Institute]; John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis (1943–54); [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, sold to private collection, Texas, 1954]; private collection, Texas; [M. Knoedler & Co., sold to Clark, Feb. 1955]; Sterling and Francine Clark (1955); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.