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The Return of the Gleaner

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Photography by Edward C. Robison III
The Return of the Gleaner
Photography by Edward C. Robison III

The Return of the Gleaner

Artist (1836 - 1910)
Date1867
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm)
Framed: 37 3/4 in. × 32 in. × 5 1/4 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.14
Signedl.l.: Winslow Homer / 1867
Accession number 2010.14
On View
Not on view
Provenance(Henry Schultheis Company, New York, NY); (Howard Young Galleries, New York, NY), ca. 1905; purchased by E.T. Webb [1851-1936], Webb City, MO, 1912; (Howard Young Galleries, New York, NY), 1919; Harry W. Jones [1881-1920], Kansas City, MO, ca. 1919; by bequest to Julia Jones Hubbell [d. 1964] (his daughter), Greenwich, CT, 1920; (Findlay Galleries, Kansas City, MO), ca. 1938; (E.C. Babcock Art Galleries, New York, NY), 1939; Stephen C. Clark, New York, NY, 1940; (Wildenstein & Company, New York, NY), 1946; purchased by Margaret Woodbury Strong [1897-1969], Rochester, NY, 1952; by bequest to Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, 1969; to (Christie's, New York, NY), December 2, 2004, lot 22; (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, NY); Financial Institution; to (Sotheby's, New York, NY), May 19, 2010, lot 79; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2010
Label TextWinslow Homer painted The Return of the Gleaner during a ten-month stay in France in 1867. The balance of the figure with the three-banded composition of sky, wheat, and earth suggests an elemental relationship between woman and nature. The gleaner’s assertive, frontal pose and the strong diagonal of the two-pronged wooden hayfork on her shoulder lend dynamism to the composition. Her stern gaze and ruddy complexion suggest the increased self-assurance associated more with a young woman in post-Civil War America than with a peasant woman in the French countryside.