The Dinner Horn

Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910
On View

in

American, Level 2, West Wing

  • About the Artwork

    Please note: This section is empty

  • Markings

    Please note: This section is empty

    This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.

  • Provenance

    Please note: This section is empty

    Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

    For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

    Provenance page
  • Exhibition History

    Please note: This section is empty

    The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

    We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

    Suggest Feedback
  • Published References

    Please note: This section is empty

    We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

    Suggest Feedback
  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Please note: This section is empty

    A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.

  • Credit Line for Reproduction

    Please note: This section is empty

    The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

About the Artwork

A woman dressed in red turns away from the viewer and blows a metal horn toward an unseen field. The deep overhang of a porch covered with climbing roses protects her from the summer sun. The buckets, barrels, and wooden boxes lining the porch suggest this is a working farmhouse. She is calling laborers home for dinner, as the noontime meal was known in the 1870s.

Winslow Homer rendered this subject five times between 1870 and 1873 in paintings, sketches, and a print for the widely read magazine Harper’s Weekly. In the earlier 1870 painting The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), the background opens to a green field dotted with farm workers she calls to the meal. In this final version, painted in 1873, he isolated the woman in an enclosed space with only the call of the horn linking her to the surrounding world.

The Dinner Horn

1873

Winslow Homer

1836-1910

American

----------

Oil on canvas

Unframed: 11 7/8 × 14 1/4 inches (30.2 × 36.2 cm) Framed: 20 7/8 × 23 × 3 1/2 inches (53 × 58.4 × 8.9 cm)

Paintings

American Art before 1950

Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

47.81

Copyright Not Evaluated

Markings

Signed and dated, middle right, on railing: HOMER 1873

Provenance

James Carr (New York, New York, USA).
inherited by granddaughter, Mrs. Clarence Crocker (East Orange, New Jersey, USA).
on consignment with Ferargil Galleries (New York, New York, USA).
1936, on consignment with Kleemann Galleries (New York, New York, USA).
1937, Stephen C. Clark.
on consignment with Macbeth Gallery (New York, New York, USA).
1947-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Winslow Homer Centenary. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1936.

Richardson, E. P. "The Dinner Horn by Winslow Homer." Art Quarterly 11, 2 (Spring 1948): pp. 153-157.

Winslow Homer: Illustrator. Exh. cat., Smith College Museum of Art. Northampton, MA, 1951, p. 19.

Winslow Homer. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1958, no. 26.

Romantic America. Exh. cat., John Herron Art Museum. Indianapolis, 1961, no. 25.

Wilmerding, J. Winslow Homer. New York, 1972, p. 71 (pl. 22).

“Family Art Game.” DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit Free Press (April 27, 1980): p. 5 (ill.).

Woman. Exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art. Evanston, IL, 1984, p. 18, no. 11 (ill.).

Coming Away: Winslow Homer & England. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Massachusetts, 2017, p. 44 (pl. 13).

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

Credit Line for Reproduction

Winslow Homer, The Dinner Horn, 1873, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr., 47.81.

The Dinner Horn
The Dinner Horn