The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 18

Figure 4. Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), Resting Shepherdess, 1877, painted and glazed ceramic tiles, 8 x 16 in., Heckscher
Museum of Art, partial gift of Karen H. Bechtel in memory of Ronald G. Pisano and partial museum purchase with funds from the
Acquisition Fund, the Eva Gatling Fund, and the Baker/Pisano Fund, 2005.2
the Tiler would finish his work at home. Nearly all the
tiles were monochromatic or had a limited color range, regard to color, he was prolific, completing at least
six known single tiles, one plaque, and two elaborate
done at night by lamplight, which made it difficult to
attain natural color effects. 29 The exception to this rule
was Winslow Homer, who in several of his tiles used a
wide array of brilliant colors as evidenced in his double
tile, Resting Shepherdess (fig. 4). Aside from this work’s
impressive range of color, its detail, modeling, and
attention paid to atmospheric effects suggest strongly
that it was done in Homer’s studio, in daylight, and
was based on plein-air studies. Related sketches by
Homer substantiate this theory. 30
Homer was clearly one of the most adventurous of
the Tile Club members. Aside from being daring with these fire surrounds, dated 1878, is made up of three
8 x 8-inch tiles depicting dolphinlike sea creatures
arranged vertically on either side, while across the top
is a frieze of three tiles, on which a beach scene with
two women is painted. This image relates to Homer’s
painting Promenade on the Beach, 1880. The second and
more ambitious fireplace surround, Pastoral, includes
monumentally conceived images of a shepherd on the
left and shepherdess on the right, each extending over
three 8 x 8-inch tiles (fig. 5). The frieze across the top
(extending between the heads of the two figures) de-
picts a cloudy sky and the top of a hill. Although said
“Victoria blue” and brown being the most favored
colors. This was attributed to the fact that work was
12 THE TILE CLUB: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting
fireplace surrounds (the only ones known to have been
completed by a single member of the club). 31 One of