Shepherdess
Medium
charcoal with brush and brown wash, heightened with white chalk; framing lines in graphite
Dimensions
image: 41 × 24.1 cm · sheet: 41.8 × 25.8 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Dr. J. A. Vincent
Accession Number
1924.489
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
Homer spent the summer of 1878 at Mountainsville, New York, where his brother's business partner, Lawson Valentine, had a country place called Houghton Farm. While there he developed pastoral images of shepherdesses. The flirtatious quality of these depictions becomes intriguing when we consider that Homer never married, and that he worked not only from female models but also sometimes from boys in girls' clothing.