Palm Trees, Bahamas

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Palm Trees, Bahamas

Artist Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910)

Dateabout 1898-1899

DimensionsH: 17 5/16 in. (43.9 cm); W: 14 9/16 in. (37 cm)

MediumWatercolor on paper

ClassificationDrawings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1952.27

Not on View

Label TextPalm Trees, Bahamas was painted in the winter months of 1898–99, probably in Nassau, where American master of the watercolor Winslow Homer spent many of his winters beginning around this time. “I think the Bahamas the best place I have ever found,” he wrote. Conceived from a low vantage point, the curving and straight trunks of palm trees climb toward a stormy sky against which their dark fronds are ominously silhouetted. In the lower right a reddish-brown steeple subtly rises above the sloping ridge in the middle distance. The untouched white of the sheet, here seen in much of the sky at right, plays a significant and intentional role in the completion of the composition.Published ReferencesWinslow Homer's Sub-Tropical America, Coral Gables (Fla.), Lowe Art Museum, 1968, no. 17, repr.

Hannaway, P., Winslow Homer in the Tropics, Richmond, VA, 1973, p. 209, repr. pl. 34 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 61, 62, pl. 59.

Hendricks, Gordon, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, New York, 1979, p. 181, repr. CL-568, p. 319.

Goodrich, Lloyd, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, volume 5, 1890 through 1910, New York, Goodrich-Homer Art Education Project, 2014, repr. p. 266, no. 1657.

Exhibition HistoryBrunswick, Maine, Bowdoin College Museum of Fine Arts; Waterville, Maine, Colby College, The Art of Winslow Homer, December, 1954.

New York, American Federation of Arts, From the Archives of American Art: The Role of the Macbeth Gallery, 1962, no. 36.

Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1962.

Tampa Art Institute, Tampa, Flordia. 1962.

Albany Art Institute, 1963.

Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C., 1963.

Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY. 1963.

Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI. 1963

Muscatine, Iowa, The Laura Musser Art Gallery and Museum, Opening Exhibition, 1964.

Coral Gables (Fla.), Lowe Art Museum; University of Miami, Winslow Homer's Sub-Tropical America, 1968, no. 17.

Toledo Museum of Art, Prints and Authors from the Time of Manet, September 13, 2012-January 13, 2013.

Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.

Toledo Museum of Art, Earthly Beauty, May 29-Sept. 6, 2015.