Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910

Samuel Thorndyke Preston, New York (gift from the artist)
George W. Preston (his brother), Saint Paul, Minnesota, circa 1898
Anna M. Preston  (his wife), Saint Paul, Minnesota, by 1937
John Preston (her great-nephew), New Ipswich, New Hampshire, by 1960
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ireland, Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1980
Adelson Galleries, New York, circa 1990
Private Collection, Texas
By descent to the present owner

Manchester, Vermont, Southern Vermont Art Center, Special Exhibition: Winslow Homer, June-July 1964, no. 21

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1877 to March 1881, New York, 2008, vol. III, no. 808, p. 231, illustrated; also illustrated in color p. 448

This work is in very good condition. The paper is hinged to the mat at the upper corners. There are three spots of slight adhesive residue from a former mounting on the reverse along the top edge, and two very thin lines that are possibly scratches at the upper left corner and the top edge at right.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Winslow Homer likely first met Samuel Thorndyke Preston, the first cousin of his sister-in-law, in July 1879 at the Preston family’s summer home in West Townsend, Massachusetts. The two quickly became friends and would later share an apartment in New York City on Washington Square. Executed in 1879, Youth of S.T. Preston is presumably a friendly allusion to Preston’s childhood, as he was an adult when Homer executed the watercolor. The work is a delightful example of the types of small and quiet watercolors of boys and girls that Homer produced during the 1870s purportedly meant to represent “Americans’ hope for the future and their nostalgia for the seemingly simpler, more innocent era that preceded the great upheavals of the Civil War” (Martha Tedeschi and Kristi Dahm, Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, New Haven, Connecticut, 2008, p. 38). It subtly evokes the innocence of youth as the two young boys play idly amongst the lush green grass of a sprawling meadow, unburdened by the responsibilities of adulthood.

Homer first ventured into the watercolor medium in 1873. While some artists used watercolor as a portable tool, ideal for plein air sketches that served as preliminary studies for oil paintings, Homer’s watercolors were intended to stand on their own as full-fledged works of art. His watercolors proved so successful that by 1875 he had given up his career as a commercial illustrator and was able to live comfortably from the income generated by these works. By the time he executed the last of his nearly 700 watercolors in 1905, Homer had become, in the words of American artist Marsden Hartley, "one of the few great masters of the medium the world has known" (Albert Eugene Gallatin, American Water-Colorists, New York, 1922, p. 8).