Pull for the Shore
Artist
John George Brown
(American, 1831-1913)
CultureAmerican
Date1878
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 34 1/8 x 56 1/8 in. (86.7 x 142.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 1/2 x 61 1/2 in. (100.3 x 156.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 1/2 x 61 1/2 in. (100.3 x 156.2 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower right: J. G. Brown N. A. ;
1878
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.552
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 212
Label TextJohn George Brown American, 1831–1913 Pull for the Shore, 1878 Oil on canvas In this ideal of teamwork, old and young row in unison to bring their tiny craft home through swelling seas. John George Brown based Pull for the Shore on sketches made on Grand Manan Island off the far northern coastline of Maine. Each face is a portrait of a local fisherman whom Brown met and sketched, but this epic New England battle of man against nature also may address American politics of the Reconstruction era. Following decades of sectional conflict and the violence of the Civil War, North and South struggled in the 1870s to heal the nation’s wounds and work together toward a prosperous future. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.552 ProvenanceHoratio Nelson Case, Springfield, Mass.; M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., New York; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryNational Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., 1878, no. 529. Exposition Universelle, Paris, France, 1878. "American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century," California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Calif., July 4 - August 16, 1964. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Country Paths and City Sidewalks: The Art of J. G. Brown," George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass., March 19 - May 21, 1989; National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., July 10 - September 10, 1989; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebr., October 13 - December 3, 1989. "The Tenth Street Studio Building: Artist-Entrepreneurs from the Hudson River School to the American Impressionists," The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, N.Y., June 8 - August 10, 1997; The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York, N.Y., August 21 - November 16, 1997. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. Published References_American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century_, exh. cat., California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Calif., 1964, no. 14. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 102. Linda S. Ferber, _The Preston Morton Collection of American Art_ (Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1981), 153-157, fig. 1; no. 25. ISBN: 0899510434 _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_ (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982), 86. ISBN: 0-940744-37-6 Martha J. Hoppin, _Country Paths and City Sidewalks: The Art of J.G. Brown_, exh. cat., George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass., 1989, 27, 51, no. 21. ISBN: 0916746143 Annette Blaugrund, _The Tenth Street Studio Building: Artist-Entrepreneurs from the Hudson River School to the American Impressionists_, exh. cat., The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, N.Y., 1997, 91, 93, 137. ISBN: 0943526302, 0295976357 Annette Blaugrund. "The Tenth Street Studio Building," _ American Art Review_ 9 (July/August 1997): 138-147. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 96-97, no. 56. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Martha Hoppin, _The World of J.G. Brown_, (Chesterfield, MA: Chameleon Books, 2010), 117.