Autumn

The painting _Autumn_ was created by Winslow Homer in 1877 and is dated to that year.

It was first offered at auction in New York on 29–30 January 1878 at Leavitt Art Rooms, where it appeared as lot 95. By June 1878 it had been acquired by Doll & Richards in Boston, who sold it on 1 July 1878 to Stephen Westcott Nickerson of Providence. Subsequent owners included Charles T. Barney of New York, Edward C.J. Runge (whose 1902 sale transferred it to E.A. Rorke), and M.J. Hegarty of White Plains.

After a 1936 consignment to M. Knoedler & Co., it was purchased in 1943 by Dr. Philip G. Stevens. Later owners included H. B. Yotnakparian, Polly M. Leavitt, Theodore Leavitt, Robert Carlen Galleries, Wildenstein & Co., and Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Shaye. In December 1964, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, who gifted the work to the National Gallery of Art in 1985.

Winslow Homer's Autumn (1877) is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it was accessioned in 1985 as a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. The work's provenance traces back to its sale at Leavitt Art Rooms in New York in January 1878, followed by a long chain of private ownership including Stephen Westcott Nickerson, Edward C.J. Runge, and Dr. Philip G. Stevens. Before entering the national collection, the painting was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts in 1944, where it was cataloged as number 13 in the exhibition Winslow Homer. The work remained in the Mellon collection from 1964 until its donation to the museum.