Small Yacht Racing

Small Yacht Racing depicts a sunny day at the beach as children race their toy sailboats in the calm of a shallow pool cut off from the ocean at low tide. The horizon is dotted with real sailboats but the attention of almost all the many figures, both near and distant, is taken up by the contest between the toy boats or by other play. The children in the foreground turn their backs on the viewer while the few adults pictured are relegated to the distance, behind the children whose activity is the center of attention. Carr varies his clustered figures—near and far, male and female, active and passive, adult and child, wading in the water and on the sand—for naturalistic effect. But they are united as participants in a day of wholesome pleasures—not competitors so much as fellows in innocent fun.

Small Yacht Racing is one of Carr's many images of leisure life, often set at the beach and dominated by the innocent activities of well-dressed middle-class children. Carr found these subjects, like his many park views, near his Brooklyn, New York studio. However, he seems not to have painted such slice-of-life images as this one on-site. Small Yacht Racing, like his Pic-Nic, Prospect Park, Brooklyn (TF1992.22), is a carefully composed image that bears evidence of the artist's reliance on photographs. In painting such beach scenes, Carr capitalized on current artistic fashion, as marine painting was enjoying a resurgence among American artists. 

Changes: Art in America 1881/1891, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (organizer). Venue: Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 5–November 6, 1981. [exh. cat.]

Nineteenth Century Genre Painting from The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, November 15, 1985–January 12, 1986.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.

At the Water's Edge: 19th and 20th Century American Beach Scenes, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida (organizer). Venue: Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, December 9, 1989–March 18, 1990. [exh. cat.]

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 1992.

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–June 22, 1997.

Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

Ships at Sea: Sailing Through Summer, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 6–August 26, 2001.

American Classics from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 14–June 15, 2003.

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 15–October 31, 2007.

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2008.

Sotheby's New York, New York (April 20, 1979): lot 35. Ill. lot 35 (black & white).

Carter, Curtis L. et al. Changes: Art in America 1881/1981. (exh. cat., Marquette University). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University, 1981. Text p. 24; ill. p. 24 (black & white).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-54, p. 163 (color).

>Lynes, Russell, William H. Gerdts, and Donald Kuspit. At the Water's Edge: 19th and 20th Century American Beach Scenes. (exh. cat., Tampa Museum of Art). Tampa, Florida: Tampa Museum of Art, 1989. Text pp. 10, 121 (checklist), 128; ill. p. 66 (black and white).

Small Yacht Racing, Samuel S. Carr. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 1992. Ill. (black & white).