Possibly Samuel Putnam Avery, New York, possibly 1863 to 1867;[1] (his sale, Leeds Art Galleries, New York, 4-5 February 1867, 2nd day, no. 59);[2] Mrs. Alexander H. Shephard [or Shepherd], New York;[3] (Howard Young Galleries, New York); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), in 1918.[4] George M.L. LaBranche, New York, by c. 1920, certainly by 1944 until at least 1950.[5] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), in 1954.[6] Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Shaye, Detroit, by 1957;[7] (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 30 May 1984, no. 19, bought in); consigned 29 August 1984 to (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York); sold 1 February 1985 to private collection; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 5 June 1997, no. 12); purchased by (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) for NGA.[8] [1] The painting was marked "for sale" in the catalogue of the 1863 National Academy of Design exhibition. According to "The Lounger. The National Academy of Design," _Harper's Weekly_ 7, no. 331 (2 May 1863): 274, the painting was labeled "sold" by the second day of the exhibition. The buyer was possibly Avery. See also: Lloyd Goodrich, edited and expanded by Abigail Booth Gerdts. _Record of Works by Winslow Homer_. New York, 2005: 1:no. 189. [2] The first day of the Avery sale auctioned the "private collection of oil paintings by American artists, made...during the last fifteen years..." _Home, Sweet Home_ was sold on the second day, and appears in the "Catalogue of oil paintings, being the balance of the stock consigned to S. P. Avery." Avery seems to have owned the painting only in order to sell it; it was not part of his personal collection. [3] The name is spelled Shepherd in the 1984 Sotheby's sale catalogue, and Shephard in the 1997 Christie's sale catalogue. [4] According to Judd Tully and Jo Ann Lewis, "National Gallery Buys Rare Homer," _The Washington Post_, 20 June 1997: C1, C4, the painting "had its first recorded gallery sale in 1918, when it sold for $350 at M. Knoedler & Co. in New York." [5] Goodrich and Gerdts 2005 give the "c. 1920" date. La Branche lent the painting to exhibitions at both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Worcester Art Museum in 1944, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1950. [6] Goodrich and Gerdts 2005 include Knoedler's ownership in 1954. [7] Goodrich and Gerdts 2005 give the 1957 date for the beginning of the Shaye's ownership; they lent the painting to several exhibitions, the first in 1958. [8] The full provenance was based on the catalogue entry in Marc Simpson, _Winslow Home Paintings of the Civil War_, exh. cat., The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1988: 142-147, and expanded with information from the NGA curator's acquisition proposal, a 17 June 1997 letter from Stuart Feld (both in NGA curatorial files), and sources referred to in previous notes.