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Saco Bay

Winslow Homer

American, 1836–1910

Saco Bay

1896

Homer painted this sunset over Saco Bay in Maine from a spot near his studio. Two women, carrying fishing nets and lobster traps, seem as solid and enduring as the rocks beneath their feet. They were among the last figures Homer included in his paintings, as he increasingly turned his attention to the sea. One contemporary reviewer criticized the scene’s “unnatural strawberry sky,” but the artist considered it one of his best works.

Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 23 13/16 x 37 15/16 in. (60.5 x 96.4 cm) Framed: 34 1/8 x 48 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. (86.7 x 122.6 x 11.4 cm)
Object Number 1955.5
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Winslow Homer, Saco Bay, 1896, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.5

Select Bibliography

Goldin, Marco. America! Storie di pittura dal Nuovo Mondo. Exhibition catalogue. Treviso: Linea d'Ombra Libri, 2007. Lévy, Sophie, ed. Winslow Homer: Poet of the Sea. Exhibition catalogue. Giverny: Terra Foundation for American Art; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Simpson, Marc, and Susannah Maurer. Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2005. Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1966. 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. Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975. Heller, N. G., and J. Williams. "Winslow Homer: The Great American Coast." American Artist 40 (January 1976). Fairburn, Gordon. "Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck." Horizon 22 (April 1979). Beam, Philip C. The Magazine Engravings of Winslow Homer. Icon Editions series. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York: Abrams, 1979. Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer Watercolors. Exhibition catalogue. Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 1983. 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. McCaughey, Patrick . "Native and Nomad: Winslow Homer and John S. Sargent." Daedalus 116 (Winter 1987). 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. May, Staphen. "Hymns to the Heroic: The Seascapes of Winslow Homer." Carnegie Magazine 61, no. 2 (March/April 1992). Women's Auxiliary of Prout's Neck. Homer Studio. Video Interview with Doris Homer and Charles Homer Willauer. Prout's Neck, ME: Women's Auxiliary of Prout's Neck, 1995. DVD. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 66th Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1896. Society of American Artists. 19th Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Society of American Artists, 1897. National Academy of Design. Winter Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. New York: National Academy of Design, 1910. Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Winslow Homer Memorial Exhibition: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1911. Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. 6th Annual Exhibition of American Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1911. Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Department of Fine Arts Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Exhibition catalogue. San Francisco: Panama-Pacific international Exposition, 1915. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Sixteen: Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1961. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. 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. Junker, Patricia and Philip C. Beam, et al. Winslow Homer in the 1890s: Prout's Neck Observed. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Portland Museum of Art. Winslow Homer Facing Nature. Exhibition brochure. Portland, ME: Portland Museum of Art, 1998. Philadelphia Public Ledger. "Many Good Pictures at the Academy's 66th Annual Exhibition." December 21, 1896. Walker, Sophia Antoinette. "Fine Arts: The Pennsylvania Academy, II." Independent 49 (January 28, 1897). King, B. V. "Art Notes." The Washington Post, February 14, 1897. "The Society of American Artists: Its 19th Annual Exhibition--Clever Work by Younger American Artists." The New York Times, Saturday Review of Books and Art (March 27, 1897). New York Herald. "Clever PicturesSeen at the Exhibition of the Society of American Artists." March 28, 1897. Anonymous. "The Society Exhibition: A Conservative Collection with Portraiture in the Van" New York Tribune, 28 March 1897. Coffin, William A. "Society of American Artists: Pictures at the 19th Annual Exhibition." New York Sun. March 31, 1897. Fort, John N. "Two Exhibitions." Philadelphia Evening Item (April 3, 1897). "The Observer." Art Interchange 38 (June 1897). Dorr, Charles Henry. "420 Pictures in Winter Display of the Academy." New York World. December 11, 1910. Buffalo Evening News. "Roosevelt's Portrait is Commanding Attention." Albright-Knox Art Gallery scrapbook. May 13, 1911. Buffalo Express. "Gallery and Studio Chat." Albright-Knox Art Gallery scrapbook. May 16, 1911. Buffalo Evening News. "Albright-Knox Art Gallery scrapbook." July 22, 1911. Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911. Brinton, Christian. "American Painting at the Panama-Pacific Exposition." International Studio 56 (August 1915). Laurvik, J. Nilsen. "Evolution of American Painting." The Century 90 (September 1915) Brinton, Christian. Impressions of the Art at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. New York: John Lane Co., 1916. Bryant, Lorinda Munson. American Pictures and Their Painters. New York: John Lane Co., 1917. Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel. Winslow Homer. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1923. Bolton, Theodore. "The Art of Winslow Homer: An Estimate in 1932" Fine Arts 18 (February 1932). Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer: A Biography. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1944. Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. New York: Published for The Whitney Museum of American Art by Macmillan Co., 1944. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Gardner, Alfred Ten Eyck. Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1961. Ingalls, Hunter. "Elements in the Development of Winslow Homer." Art Journal 24 (Fall 1964). Johnson, Allen, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. Revised edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964. Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006. Goldin, Marco, and H. Barbara Weinberg. Pittura Americana del XIX: Atti del convegno secolo. Treviso: Linea d'ombra libri, 2008. Carnegie Institute. Catalogue of the Twelfth Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1908. Goodrich, Lloyd. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. Edited and expanded by Abigail Booth Gerdts. 5 vols. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005. Engineers' Club. Loan Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Engineers' Club, 1909.

Provenance

[Reichard & Co., New York, 1896]; The Lotos Club, New York (1897–1923); [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold to Clark, 27 Nov. 1923]; Sterling and Francine Clark (1923–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.

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