Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 17

"Skating on Ladies' Pond Central Park": Winslow Homer 19th C. Woodcut Engraving

1860

About the Item

This Winslow Homer woodcut engraving entitled "Skating on the Ladies' Skating-Pond in Central Park, New York", was published in Harper's Weekly in the January 28, 1860 edition. It depicts a large number of men, women and children skating on a recently opened pond in Central Park. At the time of publication of this engraving, Central Park was in the early stages of construction. This engraving documents the very early appearance of Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux's masterpiece of landscape design. According to Olmsted, the park was "of great importance as the first real Park made in this century – a democratic development of the highest significance". The people of New York were very proud of the plans for their park. It was stated at the time: "Our Park, which is progressing very satisfactorily under the management of the Commissioners, will undoubtedly be, one of these days, one of the finest place of the kind in the world...Those who saw the Park before the engineers went to work on it are amazed at the beautiful sites which have been contrived with such unpromising materials; all fair persons believe that the enterprise is managed with honesty and good taste." Skating was rapidly rising in national popularity in part due to the opening of Central Park’s lake to skaters on a Sunday in December 1858 with 300 participants. The following Sunday it attracted ten thousand skaters. By Christmas Day, a reported 50,000 people came to the park, most of them to skate. There were rules governing who could use the skating pond. “The Ladies’ Pond is reserved for the fair sex, and no gentlemen are allowed to skate on it unless they are accompanied by ladies. It is kept in good order, and policemen on skates effectually repress all tendencies to rowdyism. . . . The scene . . . usually draws a large concourse of visitors.” Homer's signature is printed in the plate in the lower left.   This beautiful Homer woodcut engraving is presented in a brown wood frame and a light cream-colored mat. There is a central vertical fold, as issued and some wrinkling of the paper in various areas. The print is otherwise in very good condition. All framing materials are archival and the piece is glazed with UV protected TruVue glass. There is another Homer woodcut skating engraving in an identical style frame and mat (although slightly smaller) that is listed on 1stdibs. It is entitled "Cutting a Figure" and depicts a well dressed young woman skating on a frozen pond. See LU117329317412. These would make a wonderful display grouping. A discount is available for the purchase of these two prints. This Winslow Homer engraving is held by many museums, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Museum's National Gallery of Art and The Harvard Art Museum and many more. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was an American landscape painter, printmaker and publication illustrator. He is considered one of the most important American artists of the 19th-century. Largely self-taught Homer initially worked as an illustrator for various publications, including: Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Ballou's Pictorial Magazine. He worked for Harper's during the Civil War, producing woodcut engravings depicting the personal experiences of soldiers. He later became a master of oil and watercolor painting, often focussing on maritime themes. Harper’s Weekly, published in New York, was an extremely popular publication in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In weekly issues Harper’s reported the news, entertained with literature, poetry and art, as well as educating its readers about world affairs and new inventions. It's woodcut engraved illustrations and literature added to its popularity, employing major artists and authors of the time, including Winslow Homer, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Thomas Nast.
  • Creation Year:
    1860
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 23.13 in (58.76 cm)Width: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Depth: 1.13 in (2.88 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • After:
    Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910, American)
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Alamo, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: # 33011stDibs: LU117329316422
More From This SellerView All
  • "Mine Shaft", Soviet Union: An Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Abramovitz
    By Albert Abramovitz
    Located in Alamo, CA
    This is a signed woodcut engraving entitled "Mine Shaft" created by Albert Abramovitz in 1935, after a trip to the Soviet Union. It depicts two Russian workers constructing a mine sh...
    Category

    1930s Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Woodcut

  • "Concrete Mixer, Moscow": Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Albert Abramovitz
    By Albert Abramovitz
    Located in Alamo, CA
    This is a woodcut engraving entitled "Concrete Mixer, Moscow" by Albert Abramovitz created in 1935 after a visit to the Soviet Union. It depicts three Russian workers talking in front of a wooden structure housing a cement mixer...
    Category

    1930s Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Woodcut

  • "Subway Construction, Moscow": An Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Abramovitz
    By Albert Abramovitz
    Located in Alamo, CA
    This is a signed woodcut engraving entitled "Subway Construction, Moscow" created by Albert Abramovitz in 1935, after a trip to the Soviet Union. It depicts many Russian workers acti...
    Category

    1930s Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Woodcut

  • 18th C. Italian Architectural Engraving of a Borromini Designed Church in Rome
    Located in Alamo, CA
    "Pianta del Finestrone, Prospetto del finestrone con suoi ornamenti nel mezzo della naue maggiore per fianco nella Basilica di S. Gio. in Laterano" is an architectural engraving of an elevation of monumental windows with their associated columns and ornaments above an entrance to the Basilica of S. Gio. In Laterano in Rome, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran, also known as the Papal Archbasilica of Saint John in Lateran. It is the church of the Diocese of Rome which serves as the seat of the Roman Pontiff. The print was engraved by Alessandro Specchi (1668-1729), an engraver and architect, after a design by the Italian architect Francesco...
    Category

    Early 1700s Realist Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Engraving

  • Architectural Engraving of the House of Conseequa, Canton, China by Thomas Allom
    By Thomas Allom
    Located in Alamo, CA
    "House of Conseequa, A Chinese Merchant in the Suburbs of Canton, From a Drawing in the possession of Sir Geo. Staunton, Bart." a hand colored engraving by Samuel Bradshaw (1810-1888...
    Category

    1840s Realist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Engraving

  • "Marine Chantier de Construction": 18th C. Engraving of Shipbuilding by Diderot
    By Denis Diderot
    Located in Alamo, CA
    "Marine Chantier de Construction", plate VIII from the 18th century "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dict...
    Category

    1750s Realist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Engraving

You May Also Like
  • The Surfers
    By Arnold A. Grossman
    Located in San Francisco, CA
    This artwork titled "The Surfers" 1998 is an original color wood block print by noted California artist Arnold A. Grossman, 1923-2016. It is signed, dated and titled by the artist. ...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Woodcut

  • The Venetian Mast
    By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
    Located in Storrs, CT
    The Venetian Mast. 1879-80. Etching and drypoint. Kennedy catalog 195 state .vi; Glasgow catalog 219 state x/xii. 13 3/8 x 6 3/8. Glasgow records 53 impressions. A fine, atmospheric...
    Category

    1870s American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Drypoint, Etching

  • Ranchos Winter Robert Daughters serigraph
    By Robert Daughters
    Located in Paonia, CO
    Ranchos Winter by American impressionist Robert Daughter shows two women approaching the pueblo with the sun reflecting off the sides of the buildin...
    Category

    20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Five Pigeons (Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris)
    By Harold Altman
    Located in San Francisco, CA
    Artist: Harold Altman (American, 1924-2003) Title: Five Pigeons (Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris) Year: 1981 Medium: Original color etching with aquatint Edition: Numbered 75/200 in pencil Paper: Arches Image (plate mark) size: 11.75 x 8.25 inches Framed size: 24.5 x 17.65 inches Signature: Hand signed and titled in pencil by the artist Condition: It is in very good condition, the matting have some marks, see picture #1 Frame: Custom framed in a wooden silver frame frame, with fabric matting and brownish green fillet. About the artist. Printmaker Harold Altman was an etcher, painter, and teacher, who was born in New York City in 1924. He attended the Art Students League, 1941-42 and Cooper Union, (Graduate in Fine Arts), 1941-47, both in New York City. In 1946, he attended Black Mountain College, North Carolina and then went on to The New School, New York City 1947-49. Finishing his extensive art education at the L'Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris 1949-52. Altman settled in the central Pennsylvanian village of Lemont in 1962, where a nineteenth-century frame church serves as his studio. Approximately four months out of the year are spent working in Paris where his lithographs are printed at Atelier DesJobert. In previous years, his etchings were printed at Atelier George LeBlanc. Altman's landscapes and figurative works have been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, both in the United States and abroad. He is represented in nearly every significant collection in the world. New York's Museum of Modern Art owns over forty Altmans while the Whitney Museum of American Art and Brooklyn Museums each have over fifty of his works in their permanent collections. His work is to be found in many significant museum collections outside of the United States, several of which are the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, the Kunst Museum of Basel, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Copenhagen and the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris. OVER 300 ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS (PARTIAL LISTING) Galerie Huit - Paris (1951) The Art Institute of Chicago - (1960) The Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas - Mexico City (1961) The San Francisco Museum of Art - (1961) The Santa Barbara Museum of Art - (1961) Oklahoma Art Center - (1966, 1976) The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art - Winston-Salem, NC (1976) Milwaukee Art Center - (1969) The Print Cabinet...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Aquatint

  • "Fisherman's Wharf - San Francisco" Multi Layer Screen Print on Paper - Signed
    By Gordon Cope
    Located in Soquel, CA
    "Fisherman's Wharf - San Francisco" Multi Layer Screen Print on Paper - Signed Rare and bold Screen Print (Silk Screen) of Fisherman's Wharf 1957 by Gordon Cope (American, 1906-1999). Several boats are docked at Fisherman's Wharf, with buildings directly behind them. In the distance, the hills of San Francisco can be seen meeting a pale blue sky. Of particular note is the skillful representation of the reflections of the boats in the water, and the clever use of grey paper as negative space. Numbered and titled in pencil in the lower left corner "22/100 Fisherman's Wharf - San Francisco" Hand signed and dated in pencil in the lower right corner "Gordon Cope 1957" Titled, signed, and dated "in plate" Presented in a silver colored frame with a double mat. Frame size: 22.5"H x 27"W Image size: 15"H x 20"W Gordon N. Cope (American, 1906-1999) was an educator and painter. Trained in Utah and France, he exhibited his landscape paintings and portraits in the United States and Europe, and he believed music was related to painting. Cope was born on May 14, 1906, in Salt Lake City. He was trained by Utahn artists LeConte Stewart and Lawrence Squires, and at the Académie Julian in Paris, France in 1928. He also studied singing at the Opéra-Comique. Cope taught art at Latter-day Saints University, and he served as the chair of its Department of Art in 1930–1931. He taught at the Mountain School of Art from 1932 to 1938, and he was the director of the Art Barn School in Salt Lake City in 1939–1941. Cope painted Utahn landscapes as well as a portrait of Henry H. Blood, who served as the seventh governor of Utah from 1933 to 1941. Cope exhibited his work in the United States and Europe. According to the Deseret News, Cope "felt that music and painting are closely interrelated, and that the study of one form may be used to complement the appreciation and understanding of the other." Cope died on June 10, 1999, in San Francisco, California. Gordon Nicholson Cope studied with well-known Utah artists A.B. Wright and LeConte Stewart, and became recognized as a major Utah artist of the Great Depression. Cope was born in Salt Lake City in 1906 and spent much of his life in Utah. Cope gained much of his artistic training from diverse environments and influences. Following his training with the previously mentioned artists, Cope spent the next year, 1924, working with Lawrence Squires in Arizona. To expand his knowledge and training, Cope traveled to Europe, where he studied the "old masters" such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. From 1924 to 1928, Cope studied in England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and worked for a year at the Acadamie Julian, where many early Utah artists...
    Category

    1950s American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Screen, Paper, Ink

  • Four Walking Figures
    By Harold Altman
    Located in San Francisco, CA
    Artist: Harold Altman (American, 1924-2003) Title: Four Walking Figures Year: c.1980 Medium: Original color lithograph Edition: Inscribed "Artist Proof" in pencil Paper: Arches ...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints

    Materials

    Lithograph

Recently Viewed

View All