The Art of Steele
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University (Museum under renovation, reopens 2020)
Gift of Hubert and Cordelia Collins
Oil on canvas, 37 ½ x 45 ½ in. (95.2 x 115.6 cm)
Painted in 1884 as his student exhibition piece at Munich’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Boatman, one of Steele’s finest early works, sharply contrasts with his later, and better-known, Impressionist paintings of the southern Indiana landscape.
Distinguished by its skillful depiction of the strain of physical labor, The Boatman won a Silver Medal from the Munich academy.