(240 works, including wood engravings, handwritten documents and photographs)
Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction – The Engraved Works brilliantly evokes the grandeur of America’s coming of age in the mid-nineteenth century. The art of Winslow Homer, who arguably is the most renowned and best-loved artist of the period, is exquisitely illustrated with didactic interpretation and accompanied by never before published or exhibited period photographs. The artist skillfully captured a cross section of American society in his highly accomplished monochromatic engravings during the pre-war years, the Civil War and the following decade that tell a story of triumph and tragedy in American history.
There are several important details that have been discovered in relation to Homer’s engravings and paintings of the 1870s. The identity of the schoolteacher and the names of forty-four students, ‘between the ages 5 and under 21,’ are found in the 1877-1878 attendance records of District School No. 4, Hurley, also known as the Zandhoek School. It was at this site, not the one-room schoolhouse in Snap the Whip, 1872, where Homer made his interior classroom scenes for Country School [New England Country School], c. 1871-1873, The Country School, 1873, The Noon Recess, 1873, and Blackboard [The Schoolteacher], 1877.
Exhibition Package
240 works: includes lithographs, wood engravings, tintypes, handwritten documents, didactic wall labels, illuminated wall panels and photo murals. Available for eight (8) or twelve (12) week booking periods.
The participation fee for this exhibition includes: full value insurance coverage, press-kit information, educational materials, and 1,000 printed Gallery Guides (additional guides available at cost).
Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works is one of the largest and most comprehensive exhibitions of Winslow Homer wood engravings ever to tour American museums. This exhibition is comprised of many never before exhibited or published rare period photographs that relate to Homer’s engravings from the early 1860s to the late 1870s. Three exceptional Homer lithographs from the Bufford print shop in Boston, c.1856-1857, are also included, as well as two handwritten documents related to the Civil War. Narrative text accompanies the exhibition with six illustrated introductory panels. Each work in the exhibition is accompanied with interpretive didactic wall labels.
The exhibition catalogue accompanying this exhibition provides a broad overview of the works of art and the history of the period. All of Homer’s wood engravings are described and interpreted in extensive detail. Several of the engraved works also include comparisons with alternative works by Homer and other artists of his time and before.
The exhibition is organized into 13 subthemed areas based on Homer’s subjects that include: The Bufford Workshop Apprentice Years, Early Portraits, Leisure Time Activity, Rural America, The War Years, Holidays, The Sporting Life, Courtship and Romance, Seaside Views, America’s Youth, The Changing Role of Women, Urbanization and Society, and Poetry and Literature.
Shipping Estimates and Scheduling Coordination
CMPE will obtain cost estimates and provide complete scheduling arrangements from our storage facility to the borrowing institution, as well as return arrangements. USArt is the designated carrier for this exhibition.
Twelve (12) Crates
Ten (10) include the 240 framed works of art; two (2) crates include illustrated wall panels and explanatory text.
Collection
Two-hundred forty (240) wood engravings, three (3) lithographs, one (1) etching, two (2) handwritten documents, and twelve (12) nineteenth century tintype photographs are included. There are also eleven (11)
wall panels and photo murals, plus five (5) light boxes.
All prints are framed with UV-3 plexi. Tintypes are mounted in plexi vitrines ready for wall mounting.
Installation Plan and Organization
CMPE will provide a detailed list of works organized into groupings based on their subject matter that will help docents and museum visitors comprehend the vast amount of works in the exhibition.
Subjects and Themes include:
One thousand (1,000) printed Gallery Guides
Winslow Homer – From Poetry to Fiction (gallery guides) published by Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions will be included. Additional guides can be provided at cost.
Published Hardcover Book
Includes illuminated period photographs, paintings, watercolors, prints and drawings, 8 Chapters, 480 illustrations with an interpretive, fully illustrated checklist, 416 pages. [Museum Store discount 33% or up to 40% on orders of 12 or more.]
Information about the new publication
Didactic Wall Labels
Didactic wall labels printed and mounted on light tan beveled edge museum board total two hundred and forty (240). Additional identification labels are provided for photo murals.
Press-kits
Scanned images, bio and chronologies as well as special focus stories will be provided to the museum for distribution to the news media.
Teacher’s Manual
Essay materials and student ‘in-gallery’ assignments are provided for distribution [may also be used for docent training].
Exhibition Checklist
Box list with condition reports and insurance documents [letter form issued by AXA Art Insurance re. Willis Insurance of New York] are included.