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Drawing, Bridle Path, White Mountains

This is a Drawing. It was created by Winslow Homer. It is dated August 24, 1868 and we acquired it in 1912. Its medium is graphite on cream wove paper . It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Winslow Homer’s White Mountains images, in contrast to those by

Frederic Church or Daniel Huntington (hanging nearby), focused not on the spiritual in nature, but rather on a secular landscape activated by tourists. Homer came to the White Mountains in 1868 and 1869 on assignment from Harper’s Weekly to prepare illustrations of the latest travel spots that would appeal to its fashionable female readers. A graphic

designer as well as a painter, Homer learned to “multitask,” using the same drawings for both illustrations and paintings. This study of the horse and saddle of the central rider in the Bridal Path, White Mountains (1868), which Homer had traced from an earlier study, was used again for the painting Mount Washington and the illustration The Summit of Mount Washington (1869).



Wall Label from exhibition, "Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape," Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, NY.

This object was donated by Charles Savage Homer, Jr.. It is credited Gift of Charles Savage Homer, Jr..

Its dimensions are

Sheet: 16.8 x 24.3 cm (6 5/8 x 9 9/16 in.)

It is inscribed

Inscribed in graphite, at lower right corner: Mt. Washington / Aug. 24, 1868.

Cite this object as

Drawing, Bridle Path, White Mountains; Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910); USA; graphite on cream wove paper ; Sheet: 16.8 x 24.3 cm (6 5/8 x 9 9/16 in.); Gift of Charles Savage Homer, Jr.; 1912-12-221

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Frederic Church, Winslow Homer & Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18174501/ |title=Drawing, Bridle Path, White Mountains |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>