Winslow Homer's Minerva
by Peter G. Mc Shane
Brief Overview
- Portraiture of Frederick Loveland, Adirondack Guide by Winslow Homer. Signed in the hat brim, “H ’74.” Homer often hid his signature. See:
-Winslow Homer Illustrating America by Brooklyn Museum of Art, Page 21
-Winslow Homer by Jean Gould, Page 33.
- Scientific analysis completed by Williamstown Conservatory, Massachusetts which determined the painting is of 1874 time frame.
- Documented research recognized and published in the Town of Minerva Historical Society Quarterly.
- Received positive support and Homer authenticity from those in academia who examined the canvas and the factual research.
- Notarized statements by Minerva Town historians, the late Bob and Doris Wells, and others, identifying portrait subject as Frederick Loveland.
- Family photos identifying subject in portraiture as Frederick Loveland.
- Juliette Baker diaries connect Winslow Homer to Ida Loveland and the Loveland family.
- Frederick’s oldest daughter, Ida Loveland and her “illegitimate” child, George Loveland, move from Adirondack Mountain town of Minerva to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Winslow Homer’s hometown; Ida working as a domestic and child attending the “Pollard School.”
- Leila Forsberg’s Memoirs [100 Years, N.W.C.] credits Fredrick Loveland as a guide at the North Woods Club. She notes him as “the best guide in the area”.
- Painting apparently never intended to be marketed, but as a gift to guide Frederick Loveland. Loveland hired by Dean Sage (Russell Sage College) as superintendent for his new Hewitt Lake Club. He died there in 1896 from injuries sustained from a falling tree. “Homer’s few portraits were of friends and family; some were probably gifts to their subjects.” –David Tatum, American Art Journal, 1990, no.4 , p66.
- Portraiture cleaned and authenticated by noted Boston conservator Jim Wright, retired of B.M.F.A. Jim Wright was also a conservator of Homer Paintings at B.M.F.A. Visual analysis determined that this painting never harbored a “frame”. Six puncture holes through the side stretchers indicate it was nailed directly onto the wall.
- Painting exhibited and lectured at the North Woods Club, August 2009.
- Margaret Bourke White’s photograph of Jack Loveland in the September 1939 edition of Life magazine, coupled with Carl Carmer’s commentary, simply mirrors Winslow Homer’s pictorial observations in his Frederick Loveland’s portraiture. This was not just happenstance.
- Years of research with breakthrough discoveries can be reviewed on the website: www.winslowhomersminerva.com