The Stotesbury Art Collection

Eight Bells
by
Winslow Homer

Eight Bells

"The honors of the exhibition both for quality and quantity are carried off by Mr. Clarke, some of whose finest pieces are here shown. The newest is 'Eight Bells,' by Winslow Homer, a couple of stalwart mariners in tarpaulins that shine with recent wetting taking an observation with quadrants on the deck of a vessel. Heavy clouds have rolled away sufficiently to give the needed sunlight, and the ocean rolls angrily but lit by the sun beyond them. Rigging and bulwarks are kept low in the painting to bring out the two earnest bearded faces. Everything is breezy, fresh, and out-to-sea." --from "Pictures at the Athletic Club," in The New York Times, May 8, 1887, page 8.

Photo Source: wikipedia.org
Dimensions: 25 3/16 x 30 3/16 inches

Provenance:

  • Painted in 1886
  • Thomas B. Clarke, New York, New York, USA by 1887
  • Exhibited at the New York Athletic Club, May 1887
  • Exhibited at the Hebrew Fair, Madison Square Garden, New York, December 1895
  • Exhibited at the Union League Gallery, New York, New York, March 1898
  • Purchased by Hermann Schaus for $4,700 at the Thomas B. Clarke sale at Chickering Hall, New York, February 17, 1899
  • E.T. Stotesbury, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Exhibited at the seventy-third exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, January 1904
  • Sold by the John Levy Galleries of New York for $50,000 (at the time a record price for a picture by Winslow Homer) to E.L. Leuder, Esq., New York, New York by February 4, 1922
  • Horace Havermeyer, as agent
  • With William Macbeth, Inc., New York, New York
  • Exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, Washington, D.C., USA, November 1925
  • Thomas Cochran (fellow partner of Stotesbury at J.P. Morgan & Co.), New York, New York, March 1930;
  • Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, USA, by May 1930.

Stotesbury Location(s): 1925 Walnut Street

Sources: "Pictures at the Athletic Club," The New York Times, May 8, 1887, page 8; "Art at the Hebrew Fair," The New York Times, December 14, 1895, page 6; "Art at the Union League," The New York Times, March 11, 1898, page 6; "The T.B. Clarke Art Sale," The New York Times, February 18, 1899, page 4; "Pennsylvania Art Show," The New York Times, January 24, 1904, page 5; "Homer Painting, $50,000," The New York Times, February 4, 1922, page 11; "$50,000 for Eight Bells," The Washington Post, February 4, 1922, page 6; "The World of Art: The Academy Again," The New York Times, November 1, 1925, page SM14; "Modern Art Show Opens Tomorrow," The New York Times, May 7, 1930, page 30; Addison Gallery of American Art.
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