Collections: American Art: Grapes and Olives

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Grapes and Olives

Grapes and Olives displays a compositional formula that Henry Roderick Newman preferred—one that features a foreground dominated by objects in “close-up” (here, the grapes and olives) and that offers a sweeping, long-distance view (the Gulf of Spezia in Italy). Newman’s miniaturist application of watercolor paint on such a large format suggests that he sought not only to justify watercolor as an important medium, but to perpetuate Ruskinian notions linking the creation of art with moral righteousness, as expressed in the painstaking labor of the painter.


• Artist: Henry Roderick Newman, American, 1843-1917
• Medium: Watercolor with touches of watercolor varnish and graphite pencil underdrawing on paper
• Dates: 1878
• Dimensions: 26 x 18 13/16 in. (66 x 47.8 cm)
• Markings: no watermark visible
• Signature: Signed and dated lower left: "H. R. Newman / 1878"
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 1996.90.2
• Credit Line: Purchased with funds given by Sol Schreiber in memory of Rose Schreiber, and with funds given by Joanne and Eugene Witty, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund
• Image: Overall, 1996.90.2_transp672.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Henry Roderick Newman (American, 1843-1917). Grapes and Olives, 1878. Watercolor with touches of watercolor varnish and graphite pencil underdrawing on paper, 26 x 18 13/16 in. (66 x 47.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Sol Schreiber in memory of Rose Schreiber, and with funds given by Joanne and Eugene Witty, Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund, 1996.90.2 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1996.90.2_transp672.jpg)