Song of the Lark
Artist
Winslow Homer
(American, 1836-1910)
CultureAmerican
Date1876
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions38 5/8 x 24 1/4 x 2 1/8 in. (98.1 x 61.6 x 5.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 51 1/8 x 36 7/8 x 5 in. (129.9 x 93.7 x 12.7 cm)
Overall, Support: 38 3/4 x 24 1/4 x 13/16 in. (98.4 x 61.6 x 2.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 51 1/8 x 36 7/8 x 5 in. (129.9 x 93.7 x 12.7 cm)
Overall, Support: 38 3/4 x 24 1/4 x 13/16 in. (98.4 x 61.6 x 2.1 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower left: "Winslow Homer 1876"
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. in honor of Dr. T. Lane Stokes
Object number83.590
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 212
Label TextWinslow Homer American, 1836–1910 Song of the Lark, 1876 Oil on canvas Winslow Homer titled this post-Civil War painting "Song of the Lark" to make it clear the young man, like the lark, is an early riser. The virtue of agrarian labor appealed to Homer, who showed farmers as solid individualists, confident in their strength to provide for others. The man's sycthe was about to become obsolete, largely replaced by the mechanical eaper in the 1870s. Like the thresher, mechanization changed age-old rural patterns and practices of life. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in honor of Dr. T. Lane Stokes 83.590 ProvenanceThe Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College, Northampton, Mass., by 1925; M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1950; Mrs. Millicent Rogers, 1950; M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1976; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1976; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in Honor of Dr. T. Lane Stokes, to The Chrysler Museum, 1983. Exhibition HistoryThe Century Club, New York, N.Y., February 1877. (Exh. cat. no. 4) "Fifty-Third Annual Exhibition," National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., 1878. (Exh. cat. no. 540) "21 Great Paintings," Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colo., July 20 - August 30, 1947. (Exh. cat. no. 4) "Daingerfield and His Contemporaries," North Carolina State Art Society, Raleigh, N.C., December 1 - 19, 1948. (Exh. cat. no. 10) "Homer, Eakins, Ryder, Inness and their French Contemporaries," Fort Worth Art Association, Centennial of the City of Fort Worth, Tex., March 11 - April 14, 1949. (Exh. cat. no. 17) "Quality/An Experience in Collecting," Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, N.Y., November 12 - December 7, 1974. (Exh. cat. no. 23) "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. no. 121) "Treasures from The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tenn., June 12 - September 5, 1977. (Exh. cat. no. 36) "19th and 20th Century Masterpieces in New York Private Collections," ACA Galleries, New York, N.Y., September 26 - October 14, 1978. (Exh. cat. no. 25) "From Veneziano to Pollock: Ten Masterworks," Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., May 18 - June 24, 1984. (Exh. cat. pp. 23-25) "Winslow Homer in the 1870s," Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., February 18 - May 6, 2001; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Calif., July 10 - September 9, 2001; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., October 1 - December 31, 2001. "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. "The Agrarian Ideal: Monet, van Gogh, Homer," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017. “Coming Away: Winslow Homer in England,” Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, Nov. 11, 2017 – Feb. 4, 2018; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, March 2 – May 20, 2018.Published ReferencesIllustrations of Winslow Homer's "Song of the Lark" _The Art Journal_ (August 1878): 117, 227. George W. Sheldon, _American Painters with 83 Examples of Their Works Engraved on Wood_ (London, 1879), 29. Montgomery, _American Art in American Collections_, Vol. 2 (Boston, 1889), 717. Frederic F. Sherman, "The Early Oil Paintings of Winslow Homer," _Art in America_ 6 (June 1918): 205, 207. Nathaniel Pousette-Dart, _Winslow Homer_ (New York, 1923), plate 75. Smith College, _Handbook of The Art Collections of Smith College_ (Northampton, Mass., 1925), 21. Theodore Bolton, "The Art of Winslow Homer: An Estimate in 1932," _The Fine Arts_ 18 (February 1932): 53. _Smith College Museum Art Catalogue_, exh. cat., Smith College, Northampton, Va., 1937, 6. _Daingerfield and His Contemporaries_, exh. cat., North Carolina State Art Society, Raleigh, N.C., 1948, no. 10. _Homer, Eakins, Ryder, Inness, and Their French Contemporaries_, exh. cat., Forth Worth Art Association, Fort Worth, Tex., 1949, no. 17. Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, _Winslow Homer American Artist: His World and His Work_ (New York: C. N. Potter, 1969), 58. _Quality/An Experience in Collecting_, exh. cat., Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, N.Y., 1974, no. 23. John Wilmerding, "Winslow Homer's Creative Process," _The Magazine Antiques_ 20 (November 1975): 971. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 121. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya, _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._, exh. cat., Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tenn., 1977, no. 36. Mahonri Sharp Young, "Primitive to Pop," _Apollo_ 107 (April 1978): 46-51. Thomas W. Sokolowski and Thomas W. Styron, _From Veneziano to Pollock: Masterworks Donated to The Chrysler Museum by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._, exh. cat., The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1984, 23-25. David W. Steadman, "Ten Masterworks!" _Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 14 (June 1984), not paged. "La Chronique des Arts: Principales Acquisitions des Musées en 1984," _Gazette des Beaux-Arts Supplément_ VI Période, Tome CV, no. 1394 (March 1985): 75. Patricia Hills, edited by Hollister Sturges, "Images of Rural America in the Works of Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, and Their Contemporaries," _The Rural Vision: France and America in the Late Nineteenth Century_, Proceedings of a symposium held at Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebr., 1987. _Winslow Homer: An Annual_ (New Albany, Ind.: G. Teitelbaum, 1990): 18, 19, 55, fig. 9. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991, 134-135. James D. Watkinson, "Rogues, Vagabonds, and Fit Objects," _Virginia Cavalcade_ 49, no. 1 (December 2000): 25. Margaret C. Conrads, _Winslow Homer and The Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s_, exh. cat., Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., 2001, 136-137, fig. 104. Charles C. Eldredge, _Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950_, exh. cat., Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium, Columbus Museum, Ga., 2004, 31, fig. 16. 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), 106-107, no. 64. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 64, fig. 67. Worcester Art Museum and Milwaukee Art Museum, _Coming Away: Winslow Himer & England_, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017), 98, no. 16. Lonnie Baverel, et. al., _Quand L'Amérique Découvrait Gustave Courbet et L'Impressionisme_, exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans, in association with Lienart, 2021, 141, fig. 17.
