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Object Timeline

-0001

1916

  • We acquired this object.

1991

2001

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2015

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Study for "The Herring Net"

This is a Drawing. It was created by Winslow Homer. It is dated 1884 and we acquired it in 1916. Its medium is black, brown and white chalk, brush and white gouache on green laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

During 1884–85, Homer completed a remarkable series of pictures documenting the life and work of the local fishing fleet working the waters off Casco Bay and the Grand Banks. The earliest of these, The Herring Net, derives from an experience during the summer of 1884 when Homer accompanied a fleet harvesting a large school of herring near the islands off Prouts Neck. In this large-format, black-and-white chalk drawing executed in the studio after on-site preliminary sketches, Homer shows the fishermen hauling a net full of frenetic fish into their dory in a pyramidal composition that recalls sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Italian and French religious scenes. This powerful study, along with the final picture,

which reproduces it with several changes to tighten up the composition, belonged to Cooper Union board member Charles W. Gould, who played a major role in acquiring nineteenth-century American drawings for the Cooper Union Museum.



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 W. Gould. It is credited Gift of Charles W. Gould.

  • Frieze (USA)
  • hand painted on drafting cloth.
  • Gift of Abraham Edelman.
  • 1992-28-3

Its dimensions are

42.3 x 52.3 cm (16 5/8 x 20 9/16 in.)

It has the following markings

Watermark: L. BERVILLE

It is inscribed

Verso: Numbered in black chalk: 60

Cite this object as

Drawing, Study for "The Herring Net"; Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910); USA; black, brown and white chalk, brush and white gouache on green laid paper; 42.3 x 52.3 cm (16 5/8 x 20 9/16 in.); Gift of Charles W. Gould; 1916-15-2

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/18186909/ |title=Drawing, Study for "The Herring Net" |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>