Winslow Homer (America, 1836-1910) Women Gathering Mussels, 1881-82 Charcoal on paper 8-3/4 x 12-1/2 inches (22.2 × 31.8 cm) (sheet) Initialed and dated lower right: W.H. 1881 PROVENANCE: [with] William Macbeth, Inc., New York, 1902/07; Mrs. Francis Sydney Smithers, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1909; Mr. Austin L. Smithers, Greenwich, Connecticut; her son, gift of the above, 1935; Mrs. Austin L. Smithers (Mrs. Henry Sears), Greenwich, Connecticut, by descent from the above, 1936; Private collection, 1985; Private collection, New Hampshire, 2007; By descent to the present owner, 2016. EXHIBITED: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Paintings and Drawings by Winslow Homer 1836-1910, June 1-30, 1936, no 12. LITERATURE: L. Mechlin, "Winslow Homer," International Studio 34, June 1908, CXXXVI, n.p., illustrated; L. Goodrich, A.B. Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1881 through 1882, Vol. IV.1, New York, 2012, p. 125, no. 1127, illustrated. The most dramatic advances in Winslow Homer's development occurred in the 1880s, a transformation most clearly evident in the remarkable body of watercolors and charcoal drawings he produced during this formative period. In these smaller works on paper, he achieved a breathtaking command of medium and a spirit of innovation through which his essential gifts as a draftsman were fully realized. Homer rightly refused to regard these works as mere exercises or preparatory studies; instead, he exhibited and sold them as independent works, equal in accomplishment to the finest oils of the period. In the spring of 1881, Homer sailed to England, inaugurating a period of exceptional dedication and sustained productivity. David Tatham discusses this body of work, stating, "The life Homer chose to paint in England was the hardy and dangerous life of the fisherfolk ... After the lapse of a year his primary interest was again the female human figure, but his treatment of it was profoundly changed. His figures took on a new solidity. He incorporated them into their settings with greater skill and he made those settings more complex and active than he ever had before. The figures have a psychological dynamism previously unseen in his work. These women watch the sea intently and sometimes anxiously. In moments of repose they seem to contemplate graver matters than did Homer's day-dreaming shepherdesses" (Winslow Homer in the 1880s: Watercolors, Drawings, And Etchings, Syracuse, New York, 1983, p. 9). He continued, "There was an intrinsic drama to lives spent in a fishing village at the edge of a stormy sea. Homer heightened it in composing his pictures. He silhouetted women against sea, sky, and cliffs, grouped them together as if for safety against a hostile environment, and set them in the still center of a boisterous fisherman's beach" (ibid). Women Gathering Mussels follows a comparable compositional structure. Female villagers bend and crouch in the shallowed waters, engaged in the rhythmic labor of collecting mussels. At center, a solitary figure folds sharply at the waist, while, in the distance, clustered groups of women kneel and work with equal diligence, their choreographed gestures establishing a quiet continuity across the scene. Homer's handling of charcoal is notably intense: dense, crosshatched passages articulate the rocky shoreline and shifting accumulations of sand left by the receding tide, while lighter, more fluid strokes sweep across the sky, casting a veil of clouds that settles over the figures below. According to Abigail Booth Gerdts, in discussing the date of execution for the present work, "No. 1126 [Lot 67020] and No. 1127 [the present work, Lot 67019] carry the inscribed date 1881, but share a subject and the heavy use of the charcoal medium with a body of drawings dated 1882. [Lloyd Goodrich] noted that the signature and dating inscriptions on No. 1126 and No. 1127 were written—surely by Homer, himself—in pencil, suggesting later additions. It is possible to imagine Homer having added such inscriptions when he selected a group of old drawings to send to the Macbeth Gallery. The precise timing of their execution would reasonably have blurred over the interval of some twenty years" (Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1883 through 1889, Vol. IV.2, New York, 2012, p. 123). HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Paintings and Drawings by Winslow Homer 1836-1910, June 1-30, 1936, no 12.

[with] William Macbeth, Inc., New York, 1902/07; Mrs. Francis Sydney Smithers, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1909; Austin L. Smithers, Greenwich, Connecticut; her son, gift of the above, 1935; Mrs. Austin L. Smithers (Mrs. Henry Sears), Greenwich, Connecticut, by descent from the above, 1936; Private collection, 1985; Private collection, New Hampshire, 2007; By descent to the present owner, 2016.

Condition report available upon request.
Framed Dimensions 17 X 20.25 Inches