Winslow Homer

Doll & Richards, Boston (acquired in 1880)

Dr. Henry C. Angell, Boston (acquired by 1911)

F.W. Bayley & Son, Boston

Horace D. Chapin, Boston

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 4838320

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Boston, Doll & Richards, 1880

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1959, no. 93

Ralph Blumenthal, "A Stolen Homer Returns Home, But Less Authentic Than Before," The New York Times, 15 February 1995, p. C9, illustrated

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1877 to March 1881, vol. III, New York, 2008, no. 941, p. 334, illustrated

In Off Gloucester Harbor, Winslow Homer captures a mist-laden seascape off the coast of Massachusetts, while two boys in a rowboat gaze toward the faint silhouette of a schooner. Executed in watercolor, a medium in which the artist was equally skilled as oil painting, the present work exemplifies Homer’s early mastery of a medium that was still emerging as a respected artistic vehicle in nineteenth-century America. 

Homer began exhibiting watercolors in 1873, at a moment when the technique was primarily associated with amateur study, topographical sketches, and scientific illustration. His innovative approach, valuing immediacy, atmosphere, and direct observation helped elevate watercolor to the realm of high art. Gloucester, which he first visited in the early 1870s, became an enduring source of inspiration. Drawn to the town’s maritime culture and its youthful figures at the water’s edge, Homer produced a series of luminous coastal views that would define his early mature style. 

Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, watercolor’s portability and capacity to capture shifting light made it indispensable for artists exploring the North American landscape. Homer distinguished himself within this movement, earning acclaim for the clarity, vigor, and originality of his technique. By the late 1870s, Gloucester had become his artistic base, providing the setting for works like Off Gloucester Harbor which merges a quiet narrative moment with a subtle atmospheric drama. 

Rooted in the maritime imagery that threads through his oeuvre, Off Gloucester Harbor exemplifies Homer’s enduring fascination with the ocean as both subject and metaphor, reflecting his ability to transform an everyday coastal scene into a work of quiet monumentality.

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, p. 334). The work has since resided in the current owner’s collection for nearly 10 years after its acquisition at auction in 2017.