Winslow Homer

Horace D. Chapin, Boston (acquired circa 1880)

Margaret Chapin Osgood, Boston (acquired by descent from the above circa 1936)

Private Collection (acquired in 1957; stolen in 1969; recovered in 1995)

Lark Mason Associates, New York, 5 December 2017, lot 4838335

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer, 1911

Copley Society of Boston, Paintings in Water Color by Winslow Homer, John S. Sargent, Dodge MacKnight, 1921, no. 28 (titled Girls Berrying)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Watercolors by Winslow Homer, 1924

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Water Colors by Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, 1932, no. 25

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Paintings and Drawings by Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, 1936, no. 2

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1959, no. 88

William Howe Downes, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1911, p. 118, illustrated

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer; 1877 to March 1881, vol. III, New York, 2008, no. 815, p. 237, illustrated

Executed in 1879, Winslow Homer’s Going Berrying captures an intimate pastoral moment, depicting two young girls walking hand in hand through a sunlit meadow, each carrying a small pail filled with berries. Dressed in simple calico dresses and broad-brimmed bonnets, both figures are gently animated by a soft breeze that flutters through the landscape around them. Painted with Homer’s iconic watercolor, the scene embodies the artist’s singular ability to transform everyday rural life into poetic moments.

Typical of Homer’s works from the late 1870s, Going Berrying conveys a deep appreciation for the rhythms of country life. The artist’s fresh, transparent washes and lush palette evoke the immediacy of direct observation while infusing the composition with a quiet, timeless grace. In the work’s idyllic vision of youth and nature, Homer distills the essence of a fleeting breezy day into a study of light, color, and the happenings of daily life. Illustrating Homer’s interest in Going Berrying’s subject matter, a related work depicting the same subject, rendered in black crayon and white watercolor, is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

As noted by Abigail Booth Gerdts in Winslow Homer’s Catalogue Raisonné, “This work was stolen from its owner’s home in 1969. It was reclaimed in 1995, having remained in the sphere of the thief or thieves throughout the previous twenty-six years.” (Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer; 1877 to March 1881, vol. III, New York, 2008, no. 815, p. 237). The work has since resided in the current owner’s collection for nearly 10 years after its acquisition at auction in 2017.