The tale of these found works from their discovery through to the present is a long and winding one.

Winslow Homer The Woodcutter, 1891

In the Autumn of 1990 or 91, the owners of a Tallahasee ??????? store set out on a quest. I don't know what inspired them, but they flew to New England as the warm season was ending, hired people who "knew the territory", and proceeded to clean out the remaining inventory of estate liquidations. They grabbed whole tablefuls of materials, loaded them all onto a semi, and shipped them home. Over the course of the five days of the resulting sale, the collector retrieved the seven framed watercolors (two of which have an image on the reverse) which make up this group of found works.

The first piece that caught his attention was the one he later dubbed "Youth Leaning on a Chair". His experienced eye ever alert for American art of earlier times, he first thought that it was intended to be a study for a Huckleberry Finn sort of character.



The collector has withdrawn the found watercolors from sale, as they have no real value on the open market until and unless they are authenticated and recognized as being from the hand of Winslow Homer. While a credible offer from the right buyer might elicit a sale, the purpose of this website is to increase public awareness of the existence of these works and promote attaining a fair and impartial assessment of their origin; it is not a sales pitch.