The Four-Leaf Clover

1873

Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Seeking respite from the heat, a young girl in a pristine white dress sits in a shady spot near the wall of a house. She holds a four-leaf clover in her right hand — a difficult detail to distinguish among the lush summer growth. Vines climb up the house. Flowers bloom from an old wooden barrel propped up on bricks and a makeshift window box. In Winslow Homer’s time, and still today, children hunted for the rare four-leaf clover to bring good luck.

Homer made his name as an illustrator for national magazines, traveling to the front line during the American Civil War (1861 – 65) to depict the violence of battle. After the war, he shifted his focus to idealized views of leisure and rural life. Homer probably based this scene of bucolic childhood on sketches he made in 1873 during summer visits to Walden, New York, near the Catskill Mountains, or coastal Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Title The Four-Leaf Clover

Artwork Date 1873

Artist Winslow Homer

Life Dates 1836-1910

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 14 1/4 × 20 3/8 inches (36.2 × 51.8 cm) Framed: 25 inches × 30 15/16 inches × 4 5/8 inches (63.5 × 78.6 × 11.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 70.150

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left: Homer 1873

Provenance

O. Lagrange LaDue.
Oliver Ladew (Baltimore, Maryland, USA),
Pascal Gatterdam (New York, New York, USA).
dealer, Macbeth Galleries (New York, New York, USA).
Robert H. Tannahill;
1970-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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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.

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