Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910

Doll & Richards, Boston, Massachusetts, 1886
Ellen Hooper Gurney (Mrs. Ephraim W.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1886
Edward W. Hooper, Boston, Massachusetts, by 1890 (her brother)
Mary Hooper Warner (Mrs. Roger S.), Boston, Massachusetts, probably 1901 (his daughter)
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1917
Dr. & Mrs. George Woodward, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, 1917
Gertrude Houston Woodward (Mrs. George), Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, 1952
Charles H. Woodward, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, 1961 (her son)
Elizabeth G. Woodward (Mrs. Charles H.), Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, by 1970 (his wife)
Private Collection (by descent; sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 29, 1995, lot 130, illustrated)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

New York, Reichard & Co., Water-Color Views by Winslow Homer, December 1885, no. 29
Boston, Massachusetts, Doll & Richards, Winslow Homer and Walter Gay, February-March 1886, no. 20
Boston, Massachusetts, St. Botolph Club, Regular Water-Color Exhibition, March 1890, no. 12
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer, February-March 1911
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Art Alliance, watercolors by Winslow Homer, probably late October into November 1917
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Art Alliance, Watercolors by Winslow Homer and [John S.] Sargent, November-December 1923, no. 5
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Homer, May-June 1936, no. 44
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Winslow Homer Centenary Exhibition, December 1936-January 1937, no. 62

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, New York, 2012, vol. IV.2, 1883 through 1889, no. 1306, p. 369, illustrated; also illustrated in color p. 547

In February 1885, Winslow Homer traveled from Nassau, where he had been since December 1884 on commission for Century Magazine, to Santiago de Cuba, the second oldest town on the island. Helen Cooper writes of the series of works completed during his five week stay in Cuba, “What is unusual in these watercolors is Homer’s focus on man-made sites, a subject that had never before interested him: views of the characteristic Spanish architecture, the skyline of Santiago against the mountains, and Morro Castle. …Architecture was indeed the great feature of Santiago. ‘In few places will the artist or the lover of the odd in architecture find more to interest him.’ With jutting casement windows and upper balconies held by elaborate wood or iron supports, the small, flanking, polychromatic houses—pink, lavender, salmon, green—were the ‘delight of sketchers.’ In at least seven watercolors Homer took views of the streets and colorful buildings. Whereas most guidebooks showed the characteristic long vistas stretching down to Santiago harbor, Homer chose less conventional vantages such as” the corner view depicted in Customs House, Santiago de Cuba (Winslow Homer Watercolors, New Haven, Connecticut, 1986, pp. 144-45).