Provenance
Consigned by the artist 1900-1902 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York). Louis Ettlinger [1845-1927], New York, by 1908;[1] by inheritance to his daughters, Flora Ettlinger Whiting [Mrs. Giles Whiting, 1880-1971], New York, and Josephine Ettlinger McFadden [Mrs. William A. McFadden, d. 1932], New York; Mrs. Giles Whiting, New York, and her nephew, Louis E. McFadden, Peekskill, New York; (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold 20 March 1946 to Stephen C. Clark [1882-1960], New York; gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] Lent by him to the 12th annual exhibition at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, May-June 1908. _Hound and Hunter_ is reproduced in Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., _The American Spirit in Art_, vol. 12 of _The Pageant of America_, New Haven, 1927: 84, with the caption, "From the painting _Hound and Hunter_ in the possession of Louis Ettlinger, New York, photograph by courtesy of M. Knoedler & Co." Ettlinger died 22 January 1927.
Accession Number
1947.11.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 71.8 x 122.3 cm (28 1/4 x 48 1/8 in.) | framed: 102.2 x 151.8 x 10.2 cm (40 1/4 x 59 3/4 x 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Hound and Hunter (1892) belongs to Homer's Adirondack sporting series, depicting the partnership between hound and hunter that was the foundation of hunting culture in the North Woods. The painting captures a moment of rest or transit—hunter and dog between shots—rather than the dramatic moment of the kill, demonstrating Homer's interest in the entirety of the hunting experience rather than its climactic events. The hound, rendered with Homer's characteristic attention to animal behavior and form, is both a working partner and an independent presence—the dog has its own relationship with the wilderness that complements but does not simply serve the hunter's. The Adirondacks in 1892 were the site of conflicting visions of wilderness: the sporting culture represented by Homer's hunter sought to preserve wilderness for recreation, while the logging industry sought to extract its economic value. Homer's painting, by depicting the sporting experience with such attentive detail, implicitly argues for the wilderness's recreational and aesthetic value. The year 1892 was also significant for Homer personally: he was at the height of his powers, having consolidated the style developed during his Cullercoats experience and his Prouts Neck years into a mature synthesis that would sustain his art through his final decade.
Cultural Impact
Homer's Hound and Hunter influenced American sporting art by demonstrating that the hunting experience's most significant moments were not always the dramatic ones. The painting influenced how the relationship between hunter and dog was represented in art, establishing a tradition of depicting the working partnership between human and animal that influenced later sporting painters. The Adirondack setting influenced how the North Woods were perceived and preserved.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it reveals Homer's understanding that the hunting experience—not the kill—is the true subject of sporting art. The hound and hunter walking through the Adirondack forest capture the experience of being in wilderness with a purpose, the partnership between human and animal, and the routine of the hunt that gives it meaning beyond the moment of the shot.
