Shepherd and Shepherdess
Decorator Winslow Homer American
This painted ceramic fireplace surround was produced during the artist’s active involvement with the Tile Club. Of all the members, Homer appears to have been among the most serious, producing several individual tiles and two ambitious surrounds that he copyrighted, suggesting commercial intent. This design’s pastoral figures in imagined "old-fashioned" dress evoke both the storybook work of English artist Walter Crane as well as Homer’s own watercolors of contemporary shepherdesses. Edwin Austin Abbey, one of the original "Tilers" and whose former studio on Tenth Street later served as the Club’s permanent home, also painted an ambitious mantelpiece design with similarly historicized figures.
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