Winslow Homer (b.1836 - d.1910), 'The Shepherdess', watercolour and pencil on paper, c.1880, American, for sale est. 80,000 - 120,000 USD in Christie's American Art online sale, July/August 2020.
The Shepherdess was inspired by Homer’s time at Houghton Farm, a working homestead in Mountainville, New York, owned by the artist’s first and most important patron, Lawson Valentine. A varnish manufacturer who eventually owned approximately forty works by the artist, Valentine purchased Houghton Farm in 1876. Homer visited the property shortly thereafter, and he returned for several extended visits over the following years. Sheep husbandry was an essential part of the working farm, and the shepherdess is inarguably among the most celebrated subjects from this period of Homer’s career. As Frederic Ilchman writes, “Homer's Houghton Farm images of shepherdesses illustrate, more strongly than any other subject matter he chose to represent, the nostalgia then present in his work.” (x)