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Shown nearly full-length, a young schoolteacher fills the foreground of _The Red Schoolhouse_. Standing on a wide dirt path or road, she gazes off to her right with a solemn expression, holding two books in her left hand and the striped fabric of her flounced skirt in her right. Around her neck the teacher wears a lacy triangular shawl known as a fichu that appears to be fastened with a square gold brooch or button. Her black and white ruffled bonnet is similarly elegant. Though only roughly sketched, the building behind the central figure is recognizable as a small red schoolhouse toward which a trio of schoolgirls appear to be headed. The surrounding landscape, lush and green, is silhouetted against a wide expanse of sky that glows with the warm, bright colors of early morning.


_The Red School House_ is related to a series of school subjects that Winslow Homer painted from 1871 to 1874. Though he varied the composition and narrative emphasis across the series, three elements remain consistent: a small red schoolhouse, its young female teacher, and a luminous mountain setting. Homer’s attention to this theme reflected a popular wave of nostalgia in late 19th-century America for small country schools and the simpler lifestyle they recalled. Part of a larger body of paintings of children completed in the 1870s, Homer’s school subjects, including _The Red School House_, simultaneously express the country’s sense of optimism for future generations in the wake of the Civil War.


More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication _American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I_, pages 305-309, which is available as a free PDF at <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-19th-century-part-1.pdf</u>

Details

  • Title: The Red School House
  • Creator: Winslow Homer
  • Date Created: 1873
  • Physical Dimensions: overall: 55.5 x 39.5 cm (21 7/8 x 15 9/16 in.) framed: 65.4 x 49.9 x 4.4 cm (25 3/4 x 19 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
  • Provenance: Nellie C.M. Taylor [Mrs. George H. Taylor], Boston, in 1919.[1] (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York); sold 1919 to Gilbert E. Rubens [1884-1960], New York; (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York); sold 22 November 1935 to Thomas Edward Hanley [1895-1969], Bradford, Pennsylvania;[2] by inheritance to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania;[3] (E. V. Thaw & Co., New York); sold 14 August 1970 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA. [1] According to Lloyd Goodrich's provenance, as supplied by Abigail Booth Gerdts, 16 September 1991 (in NGA curatorial files), "Mrs. Taylor is reported to have said in 1919, that her father acquired this painting directly from Homer." [2] The painting was exhibited in _Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley_ at the Denver Art Museum from 22 February to 30 April 1968. Dr. Hanley died 9 April 1969, leaving his estate to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley. [3] "Hanley Leaves Art Works to Colleges and Museum," (_The New York Times_, 27 April 1969) states "T. Edward Hanley, the oil heir, left the bulk of his estate, valued at up to $15 million, to his wife, Tullah Innes Hanley." The collection presumably was dispersed according to his expressed wishes, but that dispersal evidently did not include _The Red Schoolhouse_. The painting was exhibited by Mrs. Hanley in the exhibition _Works from the Hanley Collection_ at Canisius College in Buffalo from 23 November to 23 December 1969.
  • Medium: oil on canvas

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