Girl and Laurel

1879

Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

The young woman leaning against a stone wall holds a basket of flowers picked from the mountain laurel bushes behind her. Native to the eastern United States, this tenacious plant produces beautiful but ephemeral flowers and flourishes in inhospitable settlings. Perhaps the laurel served as a metaphor for Winslow Homer, who made a special practice of painting moments of unexpected beauty he saw in everyday rural life in New England and New York villages during the 1870s.

According to oral tradition, the laurel in this painting grew on the land of a farmer who asked Homer to paint his portrait. When the artist refused on the grounds that he was not a portrait painter, the farmer chopped down the laurel in a fit of anger.

Title Girl and Laurel

Artwork Date 1879

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: 22 5/8 × 15 3/4 inches (57.5 × 40 cm) Framed: 28 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 1 7/8 inches (71.8 × 54 × 4.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

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. 40.56

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left corner: Homer | 1879

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Savage Homer, Jr.
Mr. Arthur Homer.
Macbeth Galleries (New York, New York, USA);
19440-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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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.

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