Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910

(possibly) Sold: Charles F. Libbie & Co., Boston, Massachusetts, May 29, 1878
Dr. Henry C. Angell, Boston, Massachusetts, before 1879
Ingersoll Bowditch, Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1925
Mrs. Ingersoll Bowditch, Cornelia Bowditch and Katherine Bowditch Codman (his wife and daughters), Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1935 
The Old Print Shop, New York, 1959
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1959 (as Two Zouaves)
Ethel and Oscar Huffman, 1963 (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner, circa 1970

Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Art Club, Boston Society of Architects, Schools at the Museum of Fine Arts, Exhibition of Contemporary Art, April-May 1879, no. 545 (as Study of Zouaves)
Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester Art Museum, Winslow Homer, November-December 1944, no. 85
New York, Wildenstein & Co., A Loan Exhibition of Winslow Homer for the Benefit of the New York Botanical Garden, February-March 1947, no. 89
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, November 1958-March 1959, no. 195, p. 128 (as Zouaves)
Boston, Massachusetts, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1959-1960, no. 151, p. 102

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, New York, 2005, vol. I, no. 234, p. 289, illustrated

Please contact the American Art department for this condition report: (212) 606 7280 or americanart@sothebys.com
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 was twenty-five years old when the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861. At this time he was just beginning a lifelong career as an artist that would earn him fame and affluence for his depictions of American life and nature, particularly of the sea. Homer was primarily a self-taught artist whose talent was readily apparent from the start and he was hired by the illustrated journal Harper’s Weekly to capture Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address. He spent the next four years documenting the war as a special artist-correspondent for Harper’s. For Homer, the Civil War provided an unusual opportunity to explore and practice his profession while rendering a service to those who valued his art as a documentary of the war. 

Executed in 1864, Our Zouaves depicts two young soldiers with bayonets. The trademark fezzes, short jackets and billowing trousers identify these soldiers as members of the 5^th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as Duryee’s Zouaves. Led by First Colonel Abram Duryee, the regiment derived its name and uniforms from the original Zouaves, Algerian mercenaries who gained fame fighting for the French army in the Crimean War. Homer spent a period of time with the regiment, who were labeled the best disciplined and soldierly regiment in the Union Army by General McClellan. He made countless sketches of these uniquely clad soldiers which helped him articulate more complete and colorful compositions following the war. Through his illustrations and sketches, which depict both the heat of battle and the makeshift respite of camp life, Homer gave the American public a visual sense of the war.