FILTER RESULTS
Home Late
186640 x 46 in. (101.6 x 116.8 cm)
Mortimer Smith
United States (Jamestown, NY, 1840 - 1896, Detroit, MI)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1975.139
Location: Currently on view
Home Late is the earliest identified painting by Mortimer Smith. The shadowy interior of the frontier cabin demonstrates his mastery of the genre scene: the rifle hanging from the ceiling side by side with drying meats and vegetables, supper cooking in the kettle suspended in the stone fireplace, and the dog sleeping peacefully by the fire. Smith is equally adept at capturing the warm glow cast by the fire as it contrasts with the cold light of the winter scene beyond the doorway. The child pausing in the doorway heightens the emotional ambiguity of the scene as he surveys the cabin's interior, perhaps to gauge the mood within as he returns home late from skating.
Smith's landscape and genre scenes suggest familiarity with his better-known contemporaries, like Albert Bierstadt and Eastman Johnson. Certainly, early exposure to the work exhibited at the Cosmopolitan Art Association in Sandusky provided Smith with models of painting styles that continued to influence him throughout his life.
[Gallery label text]
Smith's landscape and genre scenes suggest familiarity with his better-known contemporaries, like Albert Bierstadt and Eastman Johnson. Certainly, early exposure to the work exhibited at the Cosmopolitan Art Association in Sandusky provided Smith with models of painting styles that continued to influence him throughout his life.
[Gallery label text]
Marks
Artist's signature, lower left: Mortimer L. Smith 1866
Provenance
Walter Wallace, Palm Beach, FL; purchased by M. Knoedler & Co., Inc.; purchased by the Gallery in 1975
Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
genre scenes
scenes of everyday life
scenes of everyday life
Audio & Video Resources
Explore Audio and Video Media
Additional Images
Click an image to view a larger version
Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Masterpieces for Rochester: Acquisitions Since 1975 11/24/1978 - 1/7/1979
- Snow Show 1/18/1980 - 3/16/1980
- Artists of Michigan in the Nineteenth Century Muskegon Museum of Art 9/17/1987 - 3/15/1988
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: Acquisitions. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 41, Issue Number: 6. Issue Date: February 1976.
- Article Author: Adams, Jacqueline K.. Article Title: Mortimer L. Smith, 1840-1896. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Porticus. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery Volume Number: I Issue Date: 1978. Page Number: 29-35, Figure Number: 30
- Detroit Post and Tribune. Detroit, MI: Detroit Post and Tribune
- Article Author: Sweeney, J. Gray. Article Title: Mortimer L. Smith (1840-1896). Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Artists of Michigan from the Nineteenth Century. Muskegon, MI: The Muskegon Museum of Art, 1987. Page Number: 69, Figure Number: 13
- Article Scope: Entry. Snow Show. Syracuse, NY: Everson Museum of Art, 1980.
- Article Author: Schauber, Kerry. Article Title: Mortimer Smith: Home Late. Article Scope: Chapter and reproduction. Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006. Page Number: 89-91
- Article Author: Ballard, Kaitlyn. Article Title: Sitting with Emptiness. Article Scope: Poetry. Community Voices in the Gallery: a Collection of Writings by Members of our Community Inspired by Works of Art at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2009. Page Number: 66
Portfolio List
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:
Web Links
See links to web pages and lesson plans
Seeing America Inservice
Materials from a teacher in-service presentation Spring 2008
Seeing America
Chapter on Mortimer Smith's Home Late, written by Kerry Schauber.
MAGexplore
MAGexplore provides in-depth information and close looking at over 200 objects in MAG's collection.