The Addison's collection numbers over 20,000 objects. While the galleries can only accommodate a fraction of the collection, virtually the entire collection is accessible through the Museum Learning Center.

Placeholder Text

Click here to download Museum Learning Center Portfolio Guides.

Collection

Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection

<<first <previous
next> last>>


View larger image
View zoomable image
Bookmark and Share
Artist(s): Winslow Homer (Boston, MA, Feb 24, 1836 - Sep 29, 1910, Prout's Neck, Scarboro, ME)
Title: Eight Bells
Date: 1886
Dimensions: 25 3/16 in. x 30 3/16 in. (63.98 cm x 76.68 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, Gift of anonymous donor, 1930.379
Location: On loan

This object is a member of the following groups (click any group name to view all objects in that group):

Exhibitions: Man Up! Visualizing Masculinity in 19th-Century America
Artists: Winslow Homer
Exhibitions: Currents/Crosscurrents
Exhibitions: Learning to Look: The Addison at 90
Themes: MLC Portfolio: Representing the Land
Themes: MLC Portfolio: Visualizing Poetry

Object Information

Winslow Homer’s iconic painting, <i>Eight Bells</i> (1886), captures two oilskin-clad sailors as they stand on ship deck to take their bearing at storm’s end, their sou’wester hats glistening in the breaking sun as if these resolute men have been anointed after successful battle with tempestuous nature. It is the last of a series of majestic marine paintings made by Homer in the 1880s that focused on the relationship between man and sea. This painting, one of the most famous of the Addison’s founding collection, has resonated in the minds and hearts of countless visitors and alumni since the museum’s opening in 1931.

Susan Faxon
Associate Director and Curator


__________

Winslow Homer’s iconic painting, Eight Bells (1886), captures two oilskin-clad sailors
as they stand on ship deck to take their bearing at storm’s end, their sou’wester hats
glistening in the breaking sun as if these resolute men have been anointed after
successful battle with tempestuous nature. It is the last of a series of majestic marine
paintings made by Homer in the 1880s that focused on the relationship between man
and sea. This painting, one of the most famous of the Addison’s founding collection,
has resonated in the minds and hearts of countless visitors and alumni since the
museum’s opening in 1931perhaps because Homer’s dramatically cropped composition
invites viewers to join the calm and confident sailors on the ships deck as they take
their measure of victory over the roiling sea.

Exhibition History

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Sixty-third Annual Exhibition [April-May 1888], National Academy of Design Museum, 4/2/1888 - 5/12/1888
World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, National Exposition Commission, 5/1/1893 - 10/30/1893
Thomas B. Clarke Auction, American Art Association, 2/14/1899 - 2/18/1899
Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Winslow Homer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2/6/1911 - 3/19/1911
Commemorative Exhibition by Members of the National Academy of Design 1825-1925, National Academy of Design Museum, 10/17/1925 - 1/3/1926
Trois Siecles d'Art aux Etats-Unis, The Museum of Modern Art, 6/1/1938 - 7/15/1938
Loan Exhibition in Honor of Royal Cortissoz and His 50 Years of Criticism in the, Knoedler-Modarco, S.A./M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., 12/1/1941 - 12/20/1941
Winslow Homer Exhibition, Worcester Art Museum, 11/15/1944 - 12/17/1944
American Paintings, National Gallery of Art, 6/14/1946 - 8/2/1946
Winslow Homer, Wildenstein and Co., Inc., 2/19/1947 - 3/22/1947
Campus Taste in Art [Student Taste in Art], Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/16/1951 - 3/12/1951
Masterpieces of 19th Century Painting and Sculpture, Seattle Art Museum, 3/7/1951 - 5/6/1951
Man at Work, Denver Art Museum, 3/2/1952 - 4/27/1952
Where Am I? [Where Am I? What Do I See?], Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/14/1952 - 11/24/1952
Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition], Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/19/1956 - 12/24/1956
The American Vision, Wildenstein and Co., Inc., 10/22/1957 - 11/16/1957
Famous Paintings and Famous Painters, Dallas Museum of Art, 10/4/1958 - 11/2/1958
Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, 11/22/1958 - 5/3/1959
Treasures in America, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1/13/1961 - 3/5/1961
Masterpieces of Art, Seattle World's Fair, 4/21/1962 - 9/4/1962
Yankee painter; a retrospective exhibition of oils, water colors and graphics by Winslow Homer,, The University of Arizona Museum of Art, University of Arizona, 10/11/1963 - 12/1/1963
200 Years of American Painting, City Art Museum of St. Louis, 4/1/1964 - 5/31/1964
American Painting from 1830, Everson Art Museum, 12/3/1965 - 1/16/1966
Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 7/8/1966 - 9/25/1966
Triumph of Realism, Brooklyn Museum, 10/3/1967 - 3/31/1968
The Graphic Art of Winslow Homer, The Museum of Graphic Art, 10/31/1968 - 12/16/1968
The Works, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/7/1969 - 2/22/1970
Winslow Homer, Whitney Museum of American Art, 4/3/1973 - 10/21/1973
Works by Winslow Homer, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/16/1973 - 12/16/1973
Winslow Homer, Albert P. Ryder, Thomas Eakins, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/12/1980 - 1/4/1980
Masterworks from the Collection: 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, 5/9/1981 - 6/14/1981
Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 10/6/1981 - 10/31/1981
Masterworks by Artists of New England, Currier Museum of Art, 4/3/1982 - 5/16/1982
A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 9/7/1983 - 6/11/1984
Winslow Homer and the New England Coast, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, 11/9/1984 - 1/9/1985
Winslow Homer at the Addison, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/12/1990 - 7/31/1990
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/29/1993 - 1/9/1993
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/21/1994 - 4/3/1994
Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, 10/15/1995 - 9/22/1996
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
Framework: American Pictures and Frames, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/16/1999 - 4/4/1999
Foundations: Building the Addison Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/12/2001 - 4/1/2001
Explorations, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/7/2001 - 7/31/2001
Explorations: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints in the Addison, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/4/2001 - 1/13/2002
Conversations: A Collection in Dialogue, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/7/2003 - 7/31/2003
Art, Artists, and the Addison: Building a Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 3/30/2004 - 7/31/2004
Director's Choice: A Fresh Look at Winslow Homer, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/7/2004 - 2/27/2005
Eye on the Collection: West to Hopper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 6/17/2005 - 10/16/2005
Toward Abstraction, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/23/2005 - 3/26/2006
75 Years of Giving, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/11/2006 - 7/31/2006
Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s, American Federation of Arts, 9/9/2006 - 9/7/2009
Mix and Match: A Conversation between Paintings and Works on Paper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/23/2007 - 4/8/2007
So Long, Farewell, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/7/2007 - 7/31/2007
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
80 @ 80 , Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/15/2011 - 12/31/2011
Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine, Portland Museum of Art, 9/22/2012 - 12/30/2012
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/19/2013 - 3/10/2013
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/27/2013 - 7/31/2013
Natural Selections, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/14/2013 - 3/16/2014
[Permanent Collection 201-5], Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/12/2014 - 7/31/2014
Exterior Spaces, Interior Places, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/2/2014 - 1/4/2015
Heaven and Earth, Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/7/2015 - 4/5/2015
In Calm Waters, On Stormy Seas [Phillips Academy Art 300], Addison Gallery of American Art, 5/30/2015 - 7/31/2015
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/12/2015 - 3/13/2016
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/30/2016 - 7/31/2016
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/1/2016 - 3/19/2017
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/1/2017 - 7/30/2017
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/1/2017 - 7/31/2018
Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 6/23/2018 - 2/17/2019
Man Up! Visualizing Masculinity in 19th-Century America, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/21/2019 - 4/5/2020
Currents/Crosscurrents: American Art, 1850–1950, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/16/2020 - 3/7/2021
Learning to Look: The Addison at 90, Addison Gallery of American Art, 5/8/2021 - 2/6/2022
Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4/4/2022 - 1/8/2023

Your current search criteria is: Exhibition is "Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection"