Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910

Philip Henry Brown, Portland, Maine
Philip Greely Brown (his son), 1893
Estate of Philip Greely Brown (sold: American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, November 1, 1935, no. 15, illustrated (as Carrying the Catch along the Beach))
Emil Schwartzhaupt, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Estate of Leo Gerngrass, New York
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1962

New York, American Water Color Society, Twenty-First Annual Exhibition, 1888, no. 500
Brooklyn, New York, The Brooklyn Museum; Andover, Massachusetts, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, American Painting: Selections from the Collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad, June-November 1964, no. 8, p. 16, illustrated [as Sand and Sky, Prout's Neck (Carrying Catch along the Beach)]
New York, Pembroke College Club of New York, Amel Gallery, A Contemporary Art Exhibit from the Private Collections of Brown and Pembroke Alumni and Friends of the University, April 1965
Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum, American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad, May-July 1985, no. 5, p. 11, illustrated [as Sand and Sky (Carrying Catch along a Beach)]

"Fine Arts Pictures at the Water-Color Exhibition," The Nation, February 23, 1888, p. 163
"The Gallery: Exhibitions of the Water-Color Society and the Etching Club," Art Amateur, March 1888, p. 82

Sand and Sky, executed in 1887, was painted at Prout's Neck, Maine,  Homer's residence for the last three decades of his life.  Executed four years after a pivotal stay at Cullercoats, near Tynemouth, England, Sand and Sky recalls the English watercolors he did during this two year sojourn. The works composed overseas marked a departure from the earlier idyllic portrayals of the ocean for which Homer had become well known in the 1870s.  After encountering firsthand the dangers and physical challenges that the fishermen and women endured, Homer began to explore the dramatic possibilities of the sea as he examined the heroic struggle between man and environment.  

At Prout's Neck, the crashing waves and rugged terrain were suggestive of the coast at Cullercoats and Sand and Sky, probably painted near Black Rock, Eastern Point, revisits the subject of fisherwomen on the beach. While the narrative is more subtle in the present work, the gray sky warns of an impending storm as the women return home.  Stylistically, Sand and Sky is also more fluid than most of the English watercolors and demonstrates Homer's growing freedom and changing methods in the watercolor medium.  Linda Ayres writes, "Sand and Sky was favorably received at its initial exhibition at the American Water Color Society in 1888. A reviewer for The Nation considered Homer the most original painter in the show--'not so much in mere choice of subject matter as in his manner of presenting it artistically'--and described Sand and Sky as 'an effective study...remarkable for its virility of style.'  The critic for the Art Amateur found the watercolor to be one of Homer's 'best and most characteristic works'" (American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad, Fort Worth, Texas, 1985, p. 12).