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The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 1
The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 2

Post Conservation (4/13)

The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 3

View of the painting during conservation treatment with left side cleaned.

The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 4

1980 conservation, before treatment

The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 5

1980 conservation, before treatment, raking light

The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 6

1980 conservation, before treatment, back of painting

The Bridle Path, White Mountains Slider Image 7

1980 conservation, before treatment, UV light

Winslow Homer

American, 1836–1910

The Bridle Path, White Mountains

1868

A young woman rides sidesaddle along a rocky path in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She seems lost in thought, separated from the other riders, one of whom waves a handkerchief as if to draw her attention. The focus of Homer’s painting reflects two social trends that gathered momentum after the Civil War: the popularity of regional tourism in North America and the increasing independence of middle-class women.

Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 24 1/8 x 38 in. (61.3 x 96.5 cm) Frame: 35 3/4 x 49 3/4 in. (90.8 x 126.4 cm)
Object Number 1955.2
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Winslow Homer, The Bridle Path, White Mountains, 1868, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.2

Select Bibliography

Brooklyn Art Association. Spring Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Brooklyn Art Association, 1969. National Academy of Design. 45th Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. New York: National Academy of Design, 1870. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sport in American Art. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1944. Richardson, E. P. The World of the Romantic Artist: A Survey of American Culture from 1800 to 1875. Exhibition catalogue. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1944. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. Paintings by Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. Exhibition catalogue. Utica, NY: Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, 1947. Wildenstein & Co. Loan Exhibition of Winslow Homer: For the Benefit of the New York Botanical Garden. Exhibition catalogue. With an essay by Lloyd Goodrich. New York: Wildenstein & Co., 1947. Utah Centennial. One Hundred Years of American Painting. Exhibition catalogue. Salt Lake City: Utah Centennial, 1947. 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. M. Knoedler & Co. The American Vision: Paintings 1825-1975. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Public Education Association, 1968. Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. New York?, 1973. 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. Cikovsky, Nicolai, Charles Moffett, and Franklin Kelly. Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, DC: The National Gallery of Art, 1995. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. "The Art Exhibition." 17 March 1869. Anonymous. "The Academy of Design." New York Tribune, 15 April 1870. New York World. "National Academy of Design." 24 April 1870. "National Academy of Design1st Notice." New York Evening Post (27 April 1870). Harper's Weekly. 14 May 1870. Benson, Eugene. "The Annual Exhibition of the Academy." Putnam's Magazine 15, no. 30 (June 1870): 699708. Watson, Forbes, Aimée Crane, and Andrée Gloeckner. Winslow Homer. American Artists series. New York: Crown Publishers, 1942. "The Whitney Merges with the Metropolitan." Art News 41 (Feb. 1-14, 1943). Goodrich, Lloyd. "Young Winslow Homer." Magazine of Art 37 (February 1944). Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. New York: Published for The Whitney Museum of American Art by Macmillan Co., 1944. Richardson, E. P. American Romantic Painting. New York: E. Weyhe. 1944. Mather, Frank Jewett, Jr. "The Expanding Arena." The Magazine of Art 39 (November 1946). Larkin, Oliver W. Art and Life in America. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1949. Barker, Virgil. American Painting: History and Interpretation. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1951. Gordon, Isobel. "Winslow Homer, Painter of the American Scene." Hobbies 57 (February 1952). Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America: The Clark Collection Opens" in Connoisseur CXXXVI, no. 550 (December 1955): 305–10. Venn, Diggory. "Enigma in Williamstown." New England Home (JanuaryFebruary 1956). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Cutter, R. Ammi. "ArtA Museum in the Mountains" Appalachia 32 (December 1959). Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. New York: George Braziller, 1959. Daulte, François. "Des Renoir et des chevaux." Connaissance des Arts 103 (September 1960): 26–38. Pierson, William H. and Martha Davidson, eds. Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960. Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. Gardner, Alfred Ten Eyck. Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1961. Gould, Jean. Winslow Homer: A Portrait. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1962. Ripley, Elizabeth. A Biography of Winslow Homer. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1963. "Again Winslow Homer on Mount Washington." Appalachia 34 (December 1963). Anonymous. Illustration. The Chronicle of the Horse 27 (4 September 1964): cover. Tatham, David. "Winslow Homer in the Mountains." Appalachia 36 (15 June 1966). Locherbie, Bruce. Major American Authors. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. Goodrich, Lloyd. The Graphic Art of Winslow Homer. Exhibition catalogue. Foreword by Donald H. Karshan. New York: Museum of Graphic Art, 1968. 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. Wilmerding, John. Winslow Homer. American Art & Artists. New York: Praeger, 1972. Chappell, Russell E. "Winslow Homer: 'Greatest Pictorial Poet of Outdoor Life' Is Back in Town." New York Sunday News, 1 April 1973. Millard, Charles W. "Winslow Homer." The Hudson Review 26 (Winter 1973-74). Boyle, Richard J. American Impressionism. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974. Monneret, Sophie. L'Impressionisme et son époque: dictionnaire international illustré. Paris: Editions Denoël, 1978. Anonymous. Illustration. The Chronicle of the Horse 42 (16 March 1979): cover. Soffer, Miriam. "A Taste for Freedom." NAHO 12 (Spring 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. Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Foster, Kathleen A. "Makers of the American Watercolor Movement". Ph.D. diss, Yale University, New Haven, 1982. Cornell, Sara. Art: A History of Changing Style. Oxford: Phaidon, 1983. 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. Luhrs, Kathleen, ed. American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 1985. Tatham, David. "The Two Guides: Winslow Homer at Keene Vallery, Adirondacks." American Art Journal 20, no. 2. (1988): 234. Conrads, Margaret C. American Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. Winslow Homer. The Library of American Art. New York: Abrams, 1990. Adams, Henry. "Winslow Homer's Impressionism and Its Relation to His Trip to France." In Winslow Homer: A Symposium. Studies in the History of Art 26. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts Symposium Papers XI. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1990: 61–89. Nettles, Gail. "Winslow Homer and the Women in His Works" Winslow Homer: An Annual 6 (1991). New Albany, IN: G. Teitelbaum, 1991. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Gaehtgens, Thomas W., and Heinz Ickstadt, eds. American Icons: Transatlantic Perspectives on 18th- and 19th-Century American Art. Santa Monica, CA: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1992. Guttmann, Allen and Carol Clark. "Artists and Athletes." Journal of Sport History 22, no. 2 (Summer 1995): pp. 85-110. Little, Carl. Winslow Homer: His Art, His Light, His Landscapes. Cobb, CA: First Glance Books, 1997. Kelly, Franklin. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Homer" The Magazine Antiques 152, no. 4 (October 1997): 546-549. Tatham, David. "From Paris to the Presidentials: Winslow Homer's The Bridle Path, White Mountains" The American Art Journal 30,1/2 (1999): 36-49. Brown, Dona, ed. A Tourist's New England: Travel Fiction, 1820-1920. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1999. McGrath, Robert L. Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001. Conrads, Margaret C. Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s. Exhibition catalogue. Princeton: Princeton University Press in conjunction with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2001. Alcott, Louisa May. The Sketches of Louisa May Alcott. With an Introduction by Gregory Eiselein. Forest Hills, NY: Ironweed Press. 2001. Simpson, Marc, and Susannah Maurer. Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2005. Davidson, Gail S., et al. Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 2006. Conner, Holly Pyne, ed. Off the Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase, and Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Johns, Elizabeth. Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation. Berkeley, CA, and London: University of Califorinia Press, Ltd., 2002. Allen, Brian T. "Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute." American Art Review: Special edition, The Western Massachusetts Art Trail XVI, no. 3 (2004): 162-169. Guttmann, Allen. Sports and American Art: From Benjamin West to Andy Warhol. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. Siegel, Nancy, ed. The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting. Lebanon, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2011. 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. Goodrich, Lloyd. Record of Works by Winslow Homer. Edited and expanded by Abigail Booth Gerdts. 5 vols. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2005. Lawrence, James. "Exhibition Review: Winslow Homer. Williamstown." The Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1233 (December 2005): 84850.

Provenance

Martha Bennett Phelps (Mrs. John Case Phelps), Wilkes-Barre, PA.; William George Phelps, Binghamton, NY., her son, by descent; Esther Phelps Pumpelly, Owego, NY., his daughter, by descent; [Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1937–8, sold to the Whitney]; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1938–50); [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1950, sold to Clark, 1 May 1950]; Sterling and Francine Clark (1950–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.

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