Description
Adirondacks Guide is a sensitive portrait of the guide Rufus Wallace, shown returning from duck hunting in his canoe. Although the background of lake and sky are only loosely suggested, the details of the old man’s face, beard, and still-strong body are carefully rendered with brushstrokes of diluted color. His gaze, forward and slightly elevated, is evocative; one senses that the old man is at once alert to nature and lost in his own contemplations.
Provenance
The artist to his brother, Charles S. Homer, Jr. (1834–1917), New York, by 1910 [according to correspondence from Abigail Booth Gerdts to the Art Institute, February 10, 2007]. Charles W. Gould (1849–1931), New York, by 1915 [Brooklyn exh. cat. 1915]. Sold by Knoedler and Company, New York [stamp (not in Lugt), verso, in purple ink: M.K. & Co. W.C. No….], to Martin A. Ryerson (1856–1932), Chicago, November 11, 1915 [invoice]; given to the Art Institute, 1933.
Accession Number
16772
Medium
Transparent watercolor with touches of opaque watercolor, rewetting, blotting and scraping, over traces of graphite, on thick, moderately textured, ivory wove paper (top edge trimmed)
Dimensions
32.9 × 54.5 cm (13 × 21 1/2 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
Winslow Homer's Adirondacks Guide shows a wilderness guide, a figure Homer admired for his knowledge of the woods and waters. This painting celebrates the skill and independence of the guide.
Cultural Impact
Homer's guide figures celebrate the self-reliance of wilderness life.
Why It Matters
This Adirondacks guide celebrates the skill of the wilderness expert.
