TitleSurf and Rocks
Artist
Howard Russell Butler
(American, 1856 - 1934)
Daten.d.
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 40 1/4 × 50 in.
Framed: 43 1/4 × 54 1/8 × 1 1/2 in.
SignedSigned lower right: "H. R. Butler"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, February 2, 1942
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number181-P
Label TextButler's admiration for Winslow Homer is demonstrated in this marine, probably depicting the Maine coast. It is quite similar to Heavy Surf in Sunlight, Maine Coast (formerly Virginia H. Butler Collection), which may show the same site. Butler felt that his training in physics allowed him to view moving water scientifically, and he developed a notational system to aid in capturing fleeting visual effects.In 1942, while the Academy's Our Heritage exhibition was on view, Virginia H. Butler, the artist's widow, asked to replace her husband's NA diploma presentation originally accepted April 29, 1901--then hanging in the exhibition--with this work, which she considered superior in quality. Apparently the Council agreed with her, because they resolved that it be "accepted with thanks, and will be hung in place of his first diploma painting." Consequently the work which had been titled Marine in the 1911 catalogue of the collection, but had become known as "Surf and Rocks" by the time the catalogue of the Our Heritage exhibition was being printed, was not the same object that presently is in the Academy's collection carrying the--certainly appropriate--title "Surf and Rocks."
