Fishing depicts the two children of the Babcock family, who lived near Houghton Farm in Mountainville, New York. Winslow Homer traveled to the region in the summer and fall of 1878 to visit his first and most important patron, Lawson Valentine, who was a neighbor to the Babcocks. One of the artist’s most famous locations, Homer would repeatedly return to Houghton Farm to illustrate the beauty inherent to rural nineteenth century life. Fishing is one of three works that Homer rendered of the present subject, with the related works residing at the Colby Museum of Art and Rhode Island School of Design (fig. 1).

Once held in the collection of patron Herbert A. Goldstone, a prominent New Yorker whose collection was the subject of an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1965, Homer’s Fishing boasts a rich provenance. A rare gem from one of America’s most renowned illustrators and artists, Homer’s Fishing is an incredibly unique piece in both Homer’s oeuvre and the milieu of nineteenth century American art.