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North Woods Club, Adirondacks (The Interrupted Tete-a-Tete)

A work made of watercolor, with rewetting, blotting and scraping, over graphite, on thick, moderately textured, ivory wove paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of watercolor, with rewetting, blotting and scraping, over graphite, on thick, moderately textured, ivory wove paper.

Date:

1892

Artist:

Winslow Homer
American, 1836-1910

About this artwork

In numerous watercolors, Homer explored aspects of the controversy over deer hunting practices in the Adirondack region without overtly expressing his own opinion. In North Woods Club, Adirondacks (The Interrupted Tête-à-tête), hunting is only hinted at in a subliminal way. Homer pictured two white-tailed deer, a doe and a buck, at the edge of a mountain meadow. Homer selected the exact moment when the deer become aware of another presence, the identity of whom is left to the viewer’s imagination. He juxtaposed a yellow-green flowering meadow with cool, purple-blue mountains, creating an entrancing summer vista. Yet Homer alluded to a less-benign narrative that would have been clear to his contemporaries. Two tall white pines stand silhouetted against the view, echoing the two deer. White pine had been dangerously over harvested in this period, and worry over its dwindling numbers in the Adirondacks paralleled concern for excessive hunting of deer. Homer drew the pine trees and deer carefully in pencil before adding watercolor, making sure that the distinctive characteristics of both threatened species would be clearly identifiable.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Winslow Homer

Title

North Woods Club, Adirondacks (The Interrupted Tete-a-Tete)

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1892

Medium

Watercolor, with rewetting, blotting and scraping, over graphite, on thick, moderately textured, ivory wove paper

Inscriptions

Signed recto, lower right, in pen and brown ink: "Winslow Homer 1892/Northwoods Club N.Y." Inscribed verso, center, in graphite: "The Interrupted tete-a-tete, Adirondacks"

Dimensions

38 × 54.5 cm (15 × 21 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

Reference Number

1933.1245

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/113100/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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