Garrison House, York, Maine
Classification
landscapes
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Charles Savage Homer, Jr.
Accession Number
1918-20-11
About this artwork
Horizontal view of a dominant blocky frame house with a large brick chimney and overhanging second story perched on a hill at center background, a stone wall and attached board fence extending across the middle ground, and a boy and young woman holding hands and walking along path at lower left foreground.
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer's *Garrison House, York Maine* (1875) captures the rugged charm of coastal New England in a quintessential landscape composition. The horizontal canvas centers a sturdy, blocky frame house with a massive brick chimney and overhanging story perched on a hill, evoking the fortified "garrison houses" built by early colonists for protection against threats. In the foreground, a young woman and boy walk hand-in-hand along a, framed by a stone wall and fence that bisects the scene, drawing the eye from intimate human moments to the vast, enduring landscape beyond. Painted during Homer...