1860 Winslow Homer Central Park Skating Centerfold — 5 Museum Collections Jan 28

🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · January 28, 1860
Complete Issue · New York

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A collector's issue of the highest significance — Winslow Homer's magnificent double-page centerfold of skaters on Central Park's Ladies' Skating Pond, held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Brigham Young University Museum of Art. One of the most widely held and actively collected Homer works in existence — in a complete original issue. Combined with Irving Park at Tarrytown and the obituary of Lord Macaulay, this is one of the most important Homer issues in the entire Harper's Weekly run.

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🎨 WINSLOW HOMER — "SKATING ON THE LADIES' SKATING POND IN CENTRAL PARK"
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⛸️ DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "SKATING ON THE LADIES' SKATING POND IN THE CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK" — BY WINSLOW HOMER — PAGES 56-57
A magnificent double-page centerfold by Winslow Homer — held in the permanent collections of five major American art museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Accession No. 1996.63.108, The Ray Austrian Collection, image: 13 3⁄4 × 20 1⁄4 in.); the Metropolitan Museum of Art (cataloged in Philip C. Beam's "Winslow Homer's Magazine Engravings," cat. no. 63; Barbara Gelman's "The Wood Engravings of Winslow Homer," cat. no. 84; and Lloyd Goodrich's "The Graphic Art of Winslow Homer," cat. no. 38); the National Gallery of Art in Washington; the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (The Mavis P. and Mary Wilson Kelsey Collection of Winslow Homer Graphics); and Brigham Young University Museum of Art. It is also featured on Google Arts & Culture and published by Artvee as a public domain digital resource.

The scene depicts the Ladies' Skating Pond in Central Park — one of the most vivid social spectacles of Antebellum New York, where as many as 50,000 people a day skated during the great skating craze of the late 1850s and early 1860s. Central Park had only opened its skating ponds to the public in December 1858 — just thirteen months before this issue — and the Ladies' Pond was the most fashionable of the park's skating venues, its social mixing of classes making it one of the most democratic and joyful public spaces in the city. Homer's sweeping double-page composition captures hundreds of skaters in motion, their figures rendered with the clean outlines, dramatic contrast, and lively figure groupings that defined his early graphic style.

This is Homer's thirteenth major illustration in Harper's Weekly spanning 1859-1860 — the culmination of one of the most concentrated and historically significant runs of early American illustration in the history of the medium. An original double-page centerfold — not a reproduction — of a work held in five major art museum collections. The most widely institutionally documented Homer in this entire 1859-1860 run.

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📚 LORD MACAULAY — OBITUARY
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✍️ ILLUSTRATION — "THE LATE LORD MACAULAY"
A memorial illustration of Thomas Babington Macaulay — the greatest English historian of the Victorian era, author of The History of England, whose magisterial prose defined British historical writing for a generation. Macaulay had died on December 28, 1859, just weeks before this issue. A significant piece of Victorian literary and historical culture.

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🏡 IRVING PARK — TARRYTOWN
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🌿 THREE PRINTS — "IRVING PARK, TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK"
Three illustrations of Irving Park in Tarrytown — the Hudson Valley community where Washington Irving had lived and died, now honoring his memory with a park bearing his name. A significant piece of Hudson Valley literary and landscape history, continuing the Washington Irving memorial coverage from the previous months.

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📋 CONDITION
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I photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask any questions — I'm happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you buy.

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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· January 28, 1860
City ··············· New York
Format ············· Illustrated newspaper, complete in 16 pages

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📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION
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• Stored in an acid-free protective bag and flat-shipped in a padded envelope with heavy cardboard reinforcement
• Fully tracked for your peace of mind

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