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拍品专文
Winslow Homer’s most powerful body of work explores the awesome forces of nature and man’s impulse to conquer it. Anticipating the iconic Maine fishermen and Adirondacks guides of his later career, Mountain Climber Resting of 1869 is an early archetype of Homer’s classic hero surveying the wonder of the natural world. With an adventurous spirit and aspirational sense of accomplishment, the hiker looks out upon what is likely the New Hampshire landscape from the peak of Mount Washington. As Pamela Jane Sachant writes, “In the figure of the climber reclining on a ledge and enjoying the panorama that surrounds him, Homer captures the sense of the White Mountains as wilderness retreat and place for individual renewal.” (“Winslow Homer in the White Mountains, 1868-1870: Portraits of an Uncertain Nation,” Historical New Hampshire, vol. LIV, Fall-Winter 1999, p. 150)
Homer’s work from this period evolved in the wake of his career as an artist-reporter during the Civil War and reflects a changing American people finding their feet in an era of Reconstruction. As the 1860s drew to a close, a new leisure class seeking an outlet for their optimism, coupled with advancements in technology and transportation, led to growing tourism around the nation’s natural wonders. Indeed, the mountain climber figure in the present painting is also seen in an illustration by Homer that was captioned in the July 23, 1870, edition of Harper’s Bazar as “The Coolest Spot in New England—Summit of Mount Washington,” emphasizing the growing pilgrimage of vacationers to scenic heights.
The most prominent peak in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, Mount Washington became a fashionable destination where the Tip Top Hotel welcomed guests, and the world’s first cog railway, opened in 1869, provided an entertaining route in addition to the footpath and carriage road up the mountain. Homer first visited the White Mountains in August 1868, perhaps on assignment for Harper’s. He created a number of wood engravings in addition to four other known paintings of the area, all in museum collections: Artists Sketching in the White Mountains (1868, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine); The Bridle Path, White Mountains (1868, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts); Mount Washington (1869, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois); and White Mountain Wagon (circa 1869, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York).
As seen in Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, by the time Homer visited, Mount Washington was already a destination not only for holiday but also for artists seeking inspiration in the American landscape. From Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole to Jasper Francis Cropsey and Asher B. Durand, the best artists of the Hudson River School had captured its magnificent panoramas. However, “Winslow Homer was unusual among the artists working in the White Mountains,” as Sachant explains, “in focusing his attention as much upon the tourists and their activities as upon the landscape that drew them there in ever-increasing numbers.” (“Winslow Homer in the White Mountains, 1868-1870: Portraits of an Uncertain Nation,” p. 154) Across his series of White Mountain paintings, Homer seems fascinated by the various conveyances, from horseback caravans to crowded carriages, and focuses on the details of the visitors’ dress and accoutrements as much as, if not more so, than their natural surroundings.
In the print related to the present painting, the artist takes his reporting of the scene one step further, crowding around the mountain climber a composite of other figures, from two women who appear to be gossiping right behind him to an elegantly dressed male that appears to be a self-portrait of the artist himself. Prominently visible in the background is a hotel building, further underscoring that finding peace in nature was no longer an easy reality at this popular spot.
Yet, in Mountain Climber Resting, Homer creates a scene removed from the crowds and fully immersed in the picturesque views seen by those intrepid visitors off the beaten path. Robert L. McGrath explains, “Homer's depiction of a lone climber, contemplating the land from on high, is among the earliest representations of the new sport of mountaineering, which began to gain popularity in America shortly after the Civil War. Before then, touring in the White Mountains was undertaken most often on horseback; in only about 1870 did the vogue for climbing on foot become widely practiced.” (Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Syracuse, New York, 2001, p. 156)
The painting closely aligns with a drawing in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York. Sachant describes, “The work possesses the quality of an experience fully lived, in which the artist had an emotional investment and could easily recall from memory, complete with sensory associations. The sketch for this work, which appears to have been done on the spot, is filled with an immediacy and a freshness that is carried through in the painting. The artist also conveys a rare sense of complete leisure and repose, an abandonment of self to experience.” (Pamela Jane Sachant, “Winslow Homer in the White Mountains, 1868-1870: Portraits of an Uncertain Nation,” p. 149)
In the painting version, Homer expands the background view of the study, emphasizing the height to which the hiker has climbed and the awesomeness of the view from the top. The climber’s accomplishment is also underscored by his casual yet confident posture, which Sachant posits intentionally recalls the Classical pose of the Parthenon’s Dionysus (circa 438-432 B.C., marble, British Museum, London). McGrath summarizes, “A late century embodiment of Thomas Cole’s questing pilgrim, Homer's mountaineer, in the pose of a classical god, observes the spectacle of the lowlands from the heights—an embodiment of the ‘magisterial gaze’ at rest. Homer's lyric painting is among the earliest documentations of this new sensibility together with the representation of a new form of outdoor activity.” (Robert L. McGrath, Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Syracuse, New York, 2001, pp. 156-57)
Homer’s painting technique also works to modernize the classical figural form and traditional landscape panorama united within Mountain Climber Resting. Each shadow and highlight of the hiker’s clothing is carefully detailed, and the rocky cliff face features every shade of gray and brown in the ancient stone. Yet, the distant landscape formed of flat color fields and the brilliant sky dotted with gestural clouds is strikingly modern for a painting dated to 1869. As a contemporary critic described of another of his Mount Washington works, the painting “shows great originality in color and treatment…Such treatment shows a genius, pure and simple—and the boldness which always accompanies it.” (Boston Sunday Times, 1869)
Indeed, with its idyllic and also heroic depiction of the new tourist attraction of mountain climbing, Homer’s Mountain Climber Resting elevates beyond the typical landscape and genre painting of the post-Civil War period to reflect the new spirit of the American people at this pivotal moment in history—and a new approach to how American art would capture and preserve that spirit into the future.
The present work was previously owned by Millicent Rogers, the heiress, socialite, designer and prominent art collector whose home in Taos, New Mexico, is now preserved as the Millicent Rogers Museum. Mountain Climber Resting is prominent in photographs of Rogers’ New York City apartment published in Vogue magazine in December 1944.
Homer’s work from this period evolved in the wake of his career as an artist-reporter during the Civil War and reflects a changing American people finding their feet in an era of Reconstruction. As the 1860s drew to a close, a new leisure class seeking an outlet for their optimism, coupled with advancements in technology and transportation, led to growing tourism around the nation’s natural wonders. Indeed, the mountain climber figure in the present painting is also seen in an illustration by Homer that was captioned in the July 23, 1870, edition of Harper’s Bazar as “The Coolest Spot in New England—Summit of Mount Washington,” emphasizing the growing pilgrimage of vacationers to scenic heights.
The most prominent peak in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, Mount Washington became a fashionable destination where the Tip Top Hotel welcomed guests, and the world’s first cog railway, opened in 1869, provided an entertaining route in addition to the footpath and carriage road up the mountain. Homer first visited the White Mountains in August 1868, perhaps on assignment for Harper’s. He created a number of wood engravings in addition to four other known paintings of the area, all in museum collections: Artists Sketching in the White Mountains (1868, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine); The Bridle Path, White Mountains (1868, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts); Mount Washington (1869, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois); and White Mountain Wagon (circa 1869, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York).
As seen in Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, by the time Homer visited, Mount Washington was already a destination not only for holiday but also for artists seeking inspiration in the American landscape. From Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole to Jasper Francis Cropsey and Asher B. Durand, the best artists of the Hudson River School had captured its magnificent panoramas. However, “Winslow Homer was unusual among the artists working in the White Mountains,” as Sachant explains, “in focusing his attention as much upon the tourists and their activities as upon the landscape that drew them there in ever-increasing numbers.” (“Winslow Homer in the White Mountains, 1868-1870: Portraits of an Uncertain Nation,” p. 154) Across his series of White Mountain paintings, Homer seems fascinated by the various conveyances, from horseback caravans to crowded carriages, and focuses on the details of the visitors’ dress and accoutrements as much as, if not more so, than their natural surroundings.
In the print related to the present painting, the artist takes his reporting of the scene one step further, crowding around the mountain climber a composite of other figures, from two women who appear to be gossiping right behind him to an elegantly dressed male that appears to be a self-portrait of the artist himself. Prominently visible in the background is a hotel building, further underscoring that finding peace in nature was no longer an easy reality at this popular spot.
Yet, in Mountain Climber Resting, Homer creates a scene removed from the crowds and fully immersed in the picturesque views seen by those intrepid visitors off the beaten path. Robert L. McGrath explains, “Homer's depiction of a lone climber, contemplating the land from on high, is among the earliest representations of the new sport of mountaineering, which began to gain popularity in America shortly after the Civil War. Before then, touring in the White Mountains was undertaken most often on horseback; in only about 1870 did the vogue for climbing on foot become widely practiced.” (Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Syracuse, New York, 2001, p. 156)
The painting closely aligns with a drawing in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York. Sachant describes, “The work possesses the quality of an experience fully lived, in which the artist had an emotional investment and could easily recall from memory, complete with sensory associations. The sketch for this work, which appears to have been done on the spot, is filled with an immediacy and a freshness that is carried through in the painting. The artist also conveys a rare sense of complete leisure and repose, an abandonment of self to experience.” (Pamela Jane Sachant, “Winslow Homer in the White Mountains, 1868-1870: Portraits of an Uncertain Nation,” p. 149)
In the painting version, Homer expands the background view of the study, emphasizing the height to which the hiker has climbed and the awesomeness of the view from the top. The climber’s accomplishment is also underscored by his casual yet confident posture, which Sachant posits intentionally recalls the Classical pose of the Parthenon’s Dionysus (circa 438-432 B.C., marble, British Museum, London). McGrath summarizes, “A late century embodiment of Thomas Cole’s questing pilgrim, Homer's mountaineer, in the pose of a classical god, observes the spectacle of the lowlands from the heights—an embodiment of the ‘magisterial gaze’ at rest. Homer's lyric painting is among the earliest documentations of this new sensibility together with the representation of a new form of outdoor activity.” (Robert L. McGrath, Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Syracuse, New York, 2001, pp. 156-57)
Homer’s painting technique also works to modernize the classical figural form and traditional landscape panorama united within Mountain Climber Resting. Each shadow and highlight of the hiker’s clothing is carefully detailed, and the rocky cliff face features every shade of gray and brown in the ancient stone. Yet, the distant landscape formed of flat color fields and the brilliant sky dotted with gestural clouds is strikingly modern for a painting dated to 1869. As a contemporary critic described of another of his Mount Washington works, the painting “shows great originality in color and treatment…Such treatment shows a genius, pure and simple—and the boldness which always accompanies it.” (Boston Sunday Times, 1869)
Indeed, with its idyllic and also heroic depiction of the new tourist attraction of mountain climbing, Homer’s Mountain Climber Resting elevates beyond the typical landscape and genre painting of the post-Civil War period to reflect the new spirit of the American people at this pivotal moment in history—and a new approach to how American art would capture and preserve that spirit into the future.
The present work was previously owned by Millicent Rogers, the heiress, socialite, designer and prominent art collector whose home in Taos, New Mexico, is now preserved as the Millicent Rogers Museum. Mountain Climber Resting is prominent in photographs of Rogers’ New York City apartment published in Vogue magazine in December 1944.