D. S. Atkinson and J. Wierlich, Winslow Homer in Gloucester, Chicago, 1990, pp. 68-69, plates 7 and 8, illus.
H. Cooper, Winslow Homer Watercolors, New Haven, 1986, pp. 24-27
J. Wilmerding, Winslow Homer, New York, 1972, pp. 92-93


In the Summer of 1873, Homer chose Gloucester as his inspiration for a body of watercolors and small oils which have become classic Homer subjects. According to D. Scott Atkinson, it was not only the picturesque views of specific sites and landmarks, but also the presence of local boys along the shore which interested him. Beginning in the late 1860s, Homer began to explore the theme of boyhood, a topic more pleasing than his recent chronicling of the Civil War. E. P. Richardson described the artist's subjects as "all that is to be said about a certain aspect of life-a day, or a situation, the timeless ease of a boy's summer afternoon." (Richardson in Atkinson, p. 16) Three Boys in a Dory is representative of this body of work, featuring three small boys with their lobster pots out for a day of fishing, and portrays a sense of social, political, and economic well-being.

The boys gaze out to sea, fixed upon what Atkinson describes as "...a
future which for youths at a tender age became indubitably linked with a dangerous existence at sea." (p. 27) Too young to be working on a
shipping schooner or in a shipyard, they had to be content with waiting and iÿmitating; in this case, lobstering. Homer most likely used this idealized depiction of childhood in order for the viewer to escape not only the rugged life of adulthood, but also the harsh realities of progress, urban blight, economic woes, and the new industrial environment. Such celebration of childhood paralleled literature of the period; most notably Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. According to Helen Cooper, Homer's Gloucester subjects actually reinvented childhood, merging the artist's own nostalgia "...with memories of a bygone world of warmth, trust, and shared experiences," which mirrors America's postwar yearning for the innocence of antebellum days. (Cooper, p. 26)

Gloucester in 1873 was an ideal New England Coastal community untouched by industrialization and therefore, a perfect setting for Homer's nostalgic renderings. It was also dear to his heart, as the artist enjoyed sailing around the Cape Ann area as is evident in this period of his work. The artist, as all who sail, must have felt a great liberation from the shore and civilization, not only physically, but also spiritually; feelings which he conveyed in depicting his subjects. The sea and its various moods embodied a major portion of Homer's work throughout his life--calm and recreational, as in this painting; turbulent and rugged in his later subjects of Prout's Neck and its fisherman.

Homer's sailing subjects also parallel the other great American artist of the 19th-century, Thomas Eakins. According to John Wilmerding, it is doubtful that these two artists knew one another, but both were conceived with the physical and metaphysical presence of light. Eakins' works were fundamentally portraits which retain their individuality as in John Biglin in a Single Scull also painted in 1873 and sold in these rooms on May 23, 1990, as lot 69. Homer, on the other hand, although using identifiable individuals, generalized his figures. Wilmerding states, "For Eakins, it was to be an understanding of humanity throught individuality; for Homer, that humanity was reached through generalization and ultimately transcendence of individuality." (Wilmerding, p. 93)

In subject and quality, Three Boys in a Dory anticipates Homer's iconographic masterpiece Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) painted three years later in 1876 which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. It is of further importance because of its fresh, vibrant quality indicating that it was probably painted on site, like his more numerous watercolors. Homer must have been so pleased with his composition of Three Boys in a Dory that he made a similar watercolor version in 1875. Lloyd Goodrich contends that the watercolor was probably done in the winter from compositions made outdoors at Gloucester in 1873 because of its neutral warm palette, and that it was most likely painted for exhibition purposes. (Atkinson, p. 23) This watercolor entitled Three Boys in a Dory with Lobster Pots is in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. A wood engraving entitled Gloucester Harbor, which appeared in the September 27, 1873, issue of Harper's Weekly, also relates very closely to this painting. An example of this engraving is at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

Three Boys in a Dory, although known to Lloyd Goodrich, has never been publicly exhibited or recorded in literature. It was discovered in the early 1960s by Anthony Corning Clark in a Long Island antique shop. The painting then passed from the Clark family through Knoedler & Co., to the present owner.

This painting will be included in the forthcoming Spanierman Gallery/CUNY/Goodrich/Whitney catalogue raisonné of the works of Winslow Homer.