The Cock Fight

Prints and Drawings

1885

Winslow Homer
American, 1836-1910

In contrast to the free, confident brushwork of his Nassau images, Homer’s watercolors completed in Cuba (winter 1884-85) are characterized by more neutral color and finicky handling. In The Cock Fight, Homer used the simple backdrop of a plaster wall to offset his careful depiction of two decoratively feathered roosters. Although painted with atypical deliberation, the watercolor is intended to capture the fleeting moment when a battered young rooster has just vanquished an older, fully plumed male. As the fallen bird dies, feathers and dust stirred up by the battle still hover in the humid air.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Winslow Homer
Title: The Cock Fight
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.: 1885
Medium: Transparent and opaque watercolor, with traces of scraping, over graphite, on thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper (top and lower edges trimmed)
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right, in red-purple watercolor: "Homer 1885" Inscribed verso, upper right, in graphite: "27" [encircled]
Dimensions: 26.5 × 48.4 cm (10 7/16 × 19 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: George F. Harding Collection
Reference Number: 1982.1579
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/99603/manifest.json

New York, Reichard and Company, Water-Color Views by Winslow Homer, December [c. 18–c. 31], 1885 [according to correspondence from Abigail Booth Gerdts to the Art Institute, May 6, 1997].
Boston, Doll and Richards, Winslow Homer and Walter Gay, February 19-March 3, 1886 [according to correspondence from Abigail Booth Gerdts to the Art Institute, May 6, 1997].
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light,” February 16-May 11, 2008, pp. 176, 178, 179 (ill.), 210, cat. by Martha Tedeschi and Kristi Dahm.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, “Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents”, April 4 - July 31, 2022, p. 102 (ill.), 137, cat. by Stephanie L. Herdrich and Sylvia Mount, et. al.

John La Farge (1835–1910), Boston, before 1910 [according to correspondence from Abigail Booth Gerdts to the Art Institute, May 6, 1997]. George F. Harding, Jr. (died 1939) and the George F. Harding Museum, Chicago, before 1939; ownership transferred to the Art Institute, 1982; accessioned by the Art Institute, 1990.

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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.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.