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Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American
landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...
and
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...
, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...
. He subsequently took up
oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...
and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations.


Early life

Born in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts, in 1836, Homer was the second of three sons of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson Homer, both from long lines of New Englanders. His mother was a gifted amateur watercolorist and Homer's first teacher. She and her son had a close relationship throughout their lives. Homer took on many of her traits, including her quiet, strong-willed, terse, sociable nature; her dry sense of humor; and her artistic talent. Homer had a happy childhood, growing up mostly in then-rural
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. He was an average student, but his art talent was evident in his early years. Homer's father was a volatile, restless businessman who was always looking to "make a killing." When Homer was thirteen, Charles gave up the hardware store business to seek a fortune in the
California gold rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...
. When that failed, Charles left his family and went to Europe to raise capital for other get-rich-quick schemes that did not pay off. After Homer's high school graduation, his father saw a newspaper advertisement and arranged for an apprenticeship. Homer's
apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
at the age of 19 to J. H. Bufford, a Boston commercial
lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, was a formative but "treadmill experience". He worked repetitively on sheet music covers and other commercial work for two years. By 1857, his freelance career was underway after he turned down an offer to join the staff of ''
Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
''. "From the time I took my nose off that lithographic stone," Homer later stated, "I have had no master, and never shall have any." Homer opened his own studio in Boston. Homer's career as an
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...
lasted nearly twenty years. He contributed illustrations of Boston life and rural New England life to magazines such as '' Ballou's Pictorial'' and ''Harper's Weekly'' at a time when the market for illustrations was growing rapidly and fads and fashions were changing quickly. His early works, mostly commercial wood engravings of urban and country social scenes, are characterized by clean outlines, simplified forms, dramatic contrast of light and dark, and lively figure groupings—qualities that remained important throughout his career. His quick success was mostly due to this strong understanding of graphic design and also to the adaptability of his designs to wood engraving. Before moving to New York in 1859, Homer lived in Belmont, Massachusetts with his family. His uncle's Belmont mansion, the 1853 Homer House, was the inspiration for a number of his early illustrations and paintings, including several of his 1860s croquet pictures. The Homer House, owned by the Belmont Woman's Club, is open for public tours.


Homer's studio

In 1859, he opened a studio in the
Tenth Street Studio Building The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century. Situated at ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the artistic and publishing capital of the United States. Until 1863, he attended classes at the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...
, and studied briefly with Frédéric Rondel, who taught him the basics of painting.Cooper, p. 13. In only about a year of self-training, Homer was producing excellent oil work. His mother tried to raise family funds to send him to Europe for further study but instead ''Harper's'' sent Homer to the front lines of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
(1861–1865), where he sketched battle scenes and camp life, the quiet moments as well as the chaotic ones. His initial sketches were of the camp, commanders, and army of the famous Union officer, Major General George B. McClellan, at the banks of the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
in October 1861. Although the drawings did not get much attention at the time, they mark Homer's expanding skills from illustrator to painter. As with his urban scenes, Homer illustrated women during wartime, and showed the effects of the war on the home front. The war work was dangerous and exhausting. Back at his studio, Homer would regain his strength and re-focus his artistic vision. He set to work on a series of war-related paintings based on his sketches, among them ''Sharpshooter on Picket Duty'' (1862), ''Home, Sweet Home'' (1863), and ''Prisoners from the Front'' (1866).Cikovsky (1990), p. 16. He exhibited paintings of these subjects every year at the National Academy of Design from 1863 to 1866. ''Home, Sweet Home'' was shown at the National Academy to particular critical acclaim; it was quickly sold and the artist was consequently elected an Associate Academician, then a full Academician in 1865. During this time, he also continued to sell his illustrations to periodicals such as ''Our Young Folks'' and ''Frank Leslie's Chimney Corner''. After the war, Homer turned his attention primarily to scenes of childhood and young women, reflecting
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word ...
for simpler times, both his own and the nation as a whole. Homer was also interested in postwar subject matter that conveyed the silent tension between two communities seeking to understand their future. His oil painting '' A Visit from the Old Mistress'' (1876) shows an encounter between a group of four freed slaves and their former mistress. The formal equivalence between the standing figures suggests the balance that the nation hoped to find in the difficult years of Reconstruction. Homer composed this painting from sketches he had made while traveling through Virginia. Near the beginning of his painting career, the 27-year-old Homer demonstrated a maturity of feeling, depth of perception, and mastery of technique which was immediately recognized. His realism was objective, true to nature, and emotionally controlled. One critic wrote, "Winslow Homer is one of those few young artists who make a decided impression of their power with their very first contributions to the Academy ... He at this moment wields a better pencil, models better, colors better, than many whom, were it not improper, we could mention as regular contributors to the Academy." And of ''Home, Sweet Home'' specifically, "There is no clap-trap about it. The delicacy and strength of emotion which reign throughout this little picture are not surpassed in the whole exhibition." "It is a work of real feeling, soldiers in camp listening to the evening band, and thinking of the wives and darlings far away. There is no strained effect in it, no sentimentality, but a hearty, homely actuality, broadly, freely, and simply worked out."


Early landscapes and watercolors

Before exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, Homer finally traveled to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, France, in 1867 where he remained for a year. His most praised early painting, ''Prisoners from the Front'', was on exhibit at the Exposition Universelle in Paris at the same time. He did not study formally but he practiced landscape painting while continuing to work for ''Harper's'', depicting scenes of Parisian life. Homer painted approximately one dozen small paintings during the stay. Although he arrived in France at a time of new fashions in art, Homer's main subject for his paintings was peasant life, showing more of an alignment with the established French
Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name ...
and the artist
Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets a ...
than with newer artists
Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
and Courbet. Though his interest in depicting natural light parallels that of the early impressionists, there is no evidence of direct influence as he was already a plein-air painter in America and had already evolved a personal style which was much closer to Manet than Monet. Unfortunately, Homer was very private about his personal life and his methods (even denying his first biographer any personal information or commentary), but his stance was clearly one of independence of style and a devotion to American subjects. As his fellow artist Eugene Benson wrote, Homer believed that artists "should never look at pictures" but should "stutter in a language of their own." Throughout the 1870s, Homer continued painting mostly rural or idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, and young adults courting, including ''Country School'' (1871) and ''The Morning Bell'' (1872). In 1875, Homer quit working as a commercial illustrator and vowed to survive on his paintings and watercolors alone. Despite his excellent critical reputation, his finances continued to remain precarious. His popular 1872 painting '' Snap the Whip'' was exhibited at the 1876
Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
, Pennsylvania, as was one of his finest and most famous paintings ''Breezing Up'' (1876). Of his work at this time,
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
wrote:
We frankly confess that we detest his subjects ... he has chosen the least pictorial range of scenery and civilization; he has resolutely treated them as if they ''were'' pictorial ... and, to reward his audacity, he has incontestably succeeded.
Many disagreed with James. '' Breezing Up'', Homer's iconic painting of a father and three boys out for a spirited sail, received wide praise. The ''New York Tribune'' wrote, "There is no picture in this exhibition, nor can we remember when there has been a picture in any exhibition, that can be named alongside this." Visits to
Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Econ ...
, around 1876 resulted in paintings of rural
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
life. The same straightforward sensibility which allowed Homer to distill art from these potentially sentimental subjects also yielded the most unaffected views of African American life at the time, as illustrated in ''Dressing for the Carnival'' (1877) and ''A Visit from the Old Mistress'' (1876). In 1877, Homer exhibited for the first time at the Boston Art Club with the oil painting, ''An Afternoon Sun'', (owned by the Artist). From 1877 through 1909, Homer exhibited often at the Boston Art Club. Works on paper, both drawings and watercolors, were frequently exhibited by Homer beginning in 1882. A most unusual sculpture by the Artist, ''Hunter with Dog – Northwoods'', was exhibited in 1902. By that year, Homer had switched his primary Gallery from the Boston-based Doll and Richards to the New York City based Knoedler & Co. Homer became a member of The Tile Club, a group of artists and writers who met frequently to exchange ideas and organize outings for painting, as well as foster the creation of decorative tiles. For a short time, he designed tiles for fireplaces. Homer's nickname in The Tile Club was "The Obtuse Bard". Other well known
Tilers Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ...
were painters
William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...
,
Arthur Quartley Arthur Quartley (May 24, 1839 – May 19, 1886) was an American painter known for his marine seascapes. Biography Quartley was born in Paris and lived there to the age of twelve, when his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. He studied drawing w ...
, and the sculptor
Augustus Saint Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trav ...
. Homer started painting with
watercolors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
on a regular basis in 1873 during a summer stay in
Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...
. From the beginning, his technique was natural, fluid and confident, demonstrating his innate talent for a difficult medium. His impact would be revolutionary. Here, again, the critics were puzzled at first, "A child with an ink bottle could not have done worse." Another critic said that Homer "made a sudden and desperate plunge into water color painting". But his watercolors proved popular and enduring, and sold more readily, improving his financial condition considerably. They varied from highly detailed (''Blackboard'' – 1877) to broadly impressionistic (''Schooner at Sunset'' – 1880). Some watercolors were made as preparatory sketches for oil paintings (as for "Breezing Up") and some as finished works in themselves. Thereafter, he seldom traveled without paper, brushes and water based paints. As a result of disappointments with women or from some other emotional turmoil, Homer became reclusive in the late 1870s, no longer enjoying urban social life and living instead in Gloucester. For a while, he even lived in secluded Eastern Point Lighthouse (with the keeper's family). In re-establishing his love of the sea, Homer found a rich source of themes while closely observing the fishermen, the sea, and the marine weather. After 1880, he rarely featured genteel women at leisure, focusing instead on working women. File:Winslow Homer - Girl in the Hammock.jpg, ''Girl in the Hammock'', 1873 File:Winslow Homer - The Four Leaf Clover.jpg, ''The Four Leaf Clover'', 1873 File:Boys in a Dory MET DT5026.jpg, '' Boys in a Dory'', 1873, Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Winslow Homer - The Green Hill.jpg, ''The Green Hill'', 1878 File:Winslow Homer - On the Stile.jpg, ''On the Stile'', c. 1878 File:Winslow Homer - Peach Blossoms, 1878.jpg, ''Peach Blossoms'', 1878


Life in the United Kingdom

Homer spent two years (1881–1882) in the coastal village of Cullercoats,
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...
. Many of the paintings at Cullercoats took as their subjects working men and women and their daily heroism, imbued with a solidity and sobriety which was new to Homer's art, presaging the direction of his future work. He wrote, "The women are the working bees. Stout hardy creatures." His works from this period are almost exclusively watercolors. His palette became constrained and sober; his paintings larger, more ambitious, and more deliberately conceived and executed. His subjects more universal and less nationalistic, more heroic by virtue of his unsentimental rendering. Although he moved away from the spontaneity and bright innocence of the American paintings of the 1860s and 1870s, Homer found a new style and vision which carried his talent into new realms.


Maine and maturity

Back in the U.S. in November 1882, Homer showed his English watercolors in New York. Critics noticed the change in style at once, "He is a very different Homer from the one we knew in days gone by", now his pictures "touch a far higher plane ... They are works of High Art." Homer's women were no longer "dolls who flaunt their millinery" but "sturdy, fearless, fit wives and mothers of men" who are fully capable of enduring the forces and vagaries of nature alongside their men. In 1883, Homer moved to Prouts Neck, Maine (in Scarborough), and lived at his family's estate in the remodeled carriage house seventy-five feet from the ocean.Cikovsky (1990), p. 91. During the rest of the mid-1880s, Homer painted his monumental sea scenes. In ''Undertow'' (1886), depicting the dramatic rescue of two female bathers by two male lifeguards, Homer's figures "have the weight and authority of classical figures". In '' Eight Bells'' (1886), two sailors carefully take their bearings on deck, calmly appraising their position and by extension, their relationship with the sea; they are confident in their seamanship but respectful of the forces before them. Other notable paintings among these dramatic struggle-with-nature images are ''Banks Fisherman'', '' The Gulf Stream'', ''Rum Cay'', ''Mending the Nets'', and '' Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba''. Some of these he repeated as etchings. At fifty years of age, Homer had become a "Yankee
Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...
, cloistered on his art island" and "a hermit with a brush". These paintings established Homer, as the ''
New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established i ...
'' wrote, "in a place by himself as the most original and one of the strongest of American painters." But despite his critical recognition, Homer's work never achieved the popularity of traditional
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...
pictures or of the flattering portraits by
John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
. Many of the sea pictures took years to sell and ''Undertow'' only earned him $400. In these years, Homer received emotional sustenance primarily from his mother, brother Charles, and sister-in-law Martha ("Mattie"). After his mother's death, Homer became a "parent" for his aging but domineering father and Mattie became his closest female intimate. In the winters of 1884–5, Homer ventured to warmer locations in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
,
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
, and the
Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
and did a series of watercolors as part of a commission for ''
Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associati ...
''. He replaced the turbulent green storm-tossed sea of Prouts Neck with the sparkling blue skies of the Caribbean and the hardy New Englanders with Black natives, further expanding his watercolor technique, subject matter, and palette. During this trip he painted '' Children Under a Palm Tree'' for Edith Blake, the wife of Henry Arthur Blake, the then-governor of The Bahamas. His tropical stays inspired and refreshed him in much the same way as
Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
's trips to
Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...
. '' Children Under a Palm Tree'' was re-discovered on an episode of '' Antiques Roadshow'' in 2008, and was formally attributed to Homer on BBC's television series ''
Fake or Fortune? ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...
'' by Philip Mould and
Fiona Bruce Fiona Elizabeth Bruce (born 25 April 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader, and television presenter. She joined the BBC as a researcher for '' Panorama'' in 1989, and has since become the first female newsreader on the ''BBC News at Ten' ...
. Ownership of the painting remains an on-going controversy. ''A Garden in Nassau'' (1885) is one of the best examples of these watercolors. Once again, his freshness and originality were praised by critics but proved too advanced for the traditional art buyers and he "looked in vain for profits". Homer lived frugally, however, and fortunately his affluent brother Charles provided financial help when needed. Homer frequently visited
Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...
between 1888 and 1903. Some of his best-known works, ''A Norther, Key West, The Gulf Stream, Taking on Wet Provisions,'' and ''Palms in the Storm'', are said to have been produced there. Homer found inspiration in summer trips to the North Woods Club, near the hamlet of
Minerva, New York Minerva is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 809 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. The town is located in the southwestern corner of the county. By road, it is no ...
, in the
Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular ...
. It was on these fishing vacations that he experimented with the watercolor medium, producing works of the utmost vigor and subtlety, hymns to solitude, nature, and to outdoor life. Homer does not shrink from the savagery of blood sports nor the struggle for survival. The color effects are boldly and facilely applied. In terms of quality and invention, Homer's achievements as a watercolorist are unparalleled: "Homer had used his singular vision and manner of painting to create a body of work that has not been matched." In 1893, Homer painted one of his most famous "Darwinian" works, '' The Fox Hunt'', which depicts a flock of starving crows descending on a fox slowed by deep snow. This was Homer's largest painting, and it was immediately purchased by the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
, his first painting in a major American museum collection. In ''Huntsman and Dogs'' (1891), a lone, impassive hunter, with his yelping dogs at his side, heads home after a hunt with deer skins slung over his right shoulder. Another late work, ''The Gulf Stream'' (1899), shows a black sailor adrift in a damaged boat, surrounded by sharks and an impending maelstrom. By 1900, Homer finally reached financial stability, as his paintings fetched good prices from museums and he began to receive rents from real estate properties. He also became free of the responsibilities of caring for his father, who had died two years earlier. Homer continued producing excellent watercolors, mostly on trips to Canada and the Caribbean. Other late works include sporting scenes such as '' Right and Left'', as well as seascapes absent of human figures, mostly of waves crashing against rocks in varying light. His late seascapes are especially valued for their dramatic and forceful expression of nature's powers, and for their beauty and intensity. In his last decade, he at times followed the advice he had given a student artist in 1907: "Leave rocks for your old age—they're easy." Homer died in 1910 at the age of 74 in his Prouts Neck studio and was interred in the
Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brah ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. His painting, ''Shooting the Rapids, Saguenay River'', remains unfinished. His Prouts Neck studio, a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
, is now owned by the
Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. ...
, which offers tours. File:Winslow Homer - Moonlight.jpg, ''Moonlight'', 1874 File:Winslow Homer - Crab Fishing.jpg, ''Crab Fishing'', 1883 File:Winslow Homer - The Herring Net - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Herring Net'', 1885 File:Winslow Homer - Sunlight on the Coast - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Sunlight on the Coast'', 1890
(
Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
) File:Moonlight, Wood Island Light.jpg, '' Moonlight, Wood Island Light'', 1894, Metropolitan Museum of Art File: Winslow_Homer_-_Shark_fishing.jpg , ''Shark Fishing'', 1885


Influence

Homer never taught in a school or privately, as did
Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...
, but his works strongly influenced succeeding generations of American painters for their direct and energetic interpretation of man's stoic relationship to an often neutral and sometimes harsh wilderness.
Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...
called Homer's work an "integrity of nature". American illustrator and teacher
Howard Pyle Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy. In 1894, he began ...
revered Homer and encouraged his students to study him. His student and fellow illustrator,
N. C. Wyeth Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was the pupil of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...
(and through him
Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...
and Jamie Wyeth), shared the influence and appreciation, even following Homer to Maine for inspiration. The elder Wyeth's respect for his antecedent was "intense and absolute" and can be observed in his early work ''Mowing'' (1907). Perhaps Homer's austere individualism is best captured in his admonition to artists: "Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems."


U.S. stamp

In 1962, the U.S. Post Office released a
commemorative stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike defi ...
honoring Winslow Homer. Homer's famous oil painting '' Breezing Up'', now hanging in the National Gallery in Washington DC, was chosen as the image for the design of this issue. On August 12, 2010, The Postal Service issued a 44-cent commemorative stamp featuring Homer's ''Boys in a Pasture'' at the APS Stamp Show in Richmond, Virginia. This stamp was the ninth to be issued in a series entitled "American Treasures". The original painting is part of the Hayden Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It depicts two boys from Belmont, Massachusetts—John Carney and Patrick Keenan—who posed for the artist for 75 cents per day.


Works

His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the
1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...
. Unlike many artists who were well known for working in only one
art medium Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...
, Winslow Homer was prominent in a variety of art media, as in the following examples: File:Fresh Eggs by Winslow Homer, 1874.png, ''Fresh Eggs'', 1874 File:Song of the Lark Winslow Homer 1876.jpeg, ''Song of the Lark'', 1876, oil on canvas.
Chrysler Museum of Art The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. ...
File:Winslow Homer - The Reaper.jpg, ''The Reaper'', 1878 File:The Milk Maid by Winslow Homer, 1878.png, ''The Milk Maid'', 1878 File:Winslow Homer - Girl and Laurel.jpg, ''Girl and Laurel'', 1879
Pastoral landscapes and lifestyle (see
pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands ( pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...
) is a
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...
of literature, art and music that depicts shepherds
herd A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called '' herding''. These animals are known as gregarious animals. The term ''herd'' i ...
ing livestock around open areas of
land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...
according to
season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
s and the changing availability of water and pasturage. A ''pastoral'' is a work of this genre. File:Winslow Homer - Bo-Peep (1878).jpg, ''Bo-Peep'', 1878 File:Brooklyn Museum - Shepherdess Tending Sheep - Winslow Homer - overall.jpg, ''Shepherdess Tending Sheep'', 1878 File:Winslow Homer - Warm Afternoon.jpg, ''Warm Afternoon'' (''Shepherdess''), 1878 File:Winslow Homer - The Blue Boy.jpg, ''The Blue Boy'', 1876 File:Winslow Homer - Twilight at Leeds, New York (1876).jpg, ''Twilight at Leeds'', 1876 Winslow Homer's paintings often depicted marine landscapes. Later, when Winslow Homer spent the years between 1881 and 1882 in the village of Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear, his paintings depicting shores and coastal landscapes changed. Many of the paintings from the English coast have as subjects working men and women from the area. File:Winslow Homer - On the Beach.jpg, ''On the Beach'', 1869 File:Winslow Homer - Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts (High Tide).jpg, ''Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts'', 1870 File:Winslow Homer - Dad's Coming!.jpg, ''Dad's Coming!'', 1873 File:Winslow Homer - Clear Sailing.jpg, ''Clear Sailing'', 1880 File:Winslow Homer - Two boys watching schooners.jpg, ''Two boys watching schooners'', 1880 File:Winslow Homer - A Basket of Clams.jpg, ''A Basket of Clams'', 1873 File:Winslow Homer - A Fresh Breeze (c.1881).jpg, ''A Fresh Breeze'', c. 1881 File:Girl Carrying a Basket by Winslow Homer, 1882.png, ''Girl Carrying a Basket'', 1882 File:Winslow Homer - Girl with Red Stockings (1882).jpg, ''Girl with Red Stockings'', 1882 File:Winslow_Homer,_American_-_The_Life_Line_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg, ''The Life Line'', 1884 File:Winslow Homer - Summer Night (1890).jpg, ''Summer Night'', 1890 File:Winslow Homer - Watching the Breakers (1891).jpg, ''Watching the Breakers'', 1891 Image:Winslow Homer The Bridle Path, White Mountains.jpg, ''The Bridle Path'', 1868, oil painting ( Clark Art Institute) File:Winslow Homer, American - A Huntsman and Dogs - Google Art Project.jpg, ''A Huntsman and Dogs'', 1891 File:Winslow Homer - Mink Pond.jpg, ''Mink Pond'', 1891 File:Winslow Homer - Hudson River - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Hudson River'', 1892 File:Winslow Homer - The Adirondack guide.jpg, ''The Adirondack Guide'', 1894 File:Homer Croquet 1.jpg, ''A Game of Croquet'', 1866
File:Winslow Homer - Croquet Scene - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Croquet Scene'', 1866 File:Homer Croquet 2.jpg, ''The Croquet Match'', c. 1869 File:Homer Croquet 3.jpg, ''Croquet Players'', 1865


References


Further reading

* Athens, Elizabeth; Ruud, Brandon; Tedeschi, Martha, ''Coming Away: Winslow Homer & England''. Worcester, Massachusetts: Worcester Art Museum; Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Milwaukee Art Museum; New Haven, Connecticut: in association with Yale University Press, 2017. * Byrd, Dana E.; Goodyear III, Frank H., ''Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting''. Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Museum of Art; New Haven, Connecticut, in association with Yale University Press, 2018. * Cross, William R., ''Winslow Homer: American Passage''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022. * Griffin, Randall C., ''Winslow Homer: An American Vision''. London:
Phaidon Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional o ...
, 2017. * Grossman, Julian, ''Echo of a Distant Drum: Winslow Homer and the Civil War''. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1974. . Reissued as ''The Civil War: Battlefields and Campgrounds in the Art of Winslow Homer''. Abradale Press/H. N. Abrams, 1991. * Herdrich, Stephanie L. and Sylvia Yount, ''Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents''. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2022
Exhibition Catalog
* Malcolm, John, ''Simpson's Homer'', 2001 and 2006. This art mystery novel, the only novel to feature Winslow Homer, involves Tim Simpson tracking down an unknown watercolour by Homer of Cullercoats in 1881. * Murphy, Alexandra R., ''Winslow Homer in the Clark Collection''. Williamstown, Mass: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1986. * Sherman, Frederic Fairchild
''American Painters of Yesterday and Today'', 1919, Priv. print in New York. Chapter: Early Paintings by Winslow Homer
* Wood, Peter H. and Dalton, Karen C. C., ''Winslow Homer's Images of Blacks: The Civil War and Reconstruction Years''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988. * Wood, Peter H., ''Weathering the Storm: Inside Winslow Homer's'' Gulf Stream. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2004. * Wood, Peter H., ''Near Andersonville: Winslow Homer's Civil War''. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2010.


External links


Analysis of 126 Famous Paintings by Winslow Homer
*Wood, Peter H
"Winslow Homer and the American Civil War"
A lecture on Homer's painting ''Near Andersonville'' and his relationship to the Civil War. ''Southern Spaces'', March 4, 2011.
Analysis of 125 Famous Winslow Homer Paintings

Winslow-Homer.com

Winslow Homer Artwork Examples on AskART.

"Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History"
Exhibition held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in 2005. The exhibition website showcases the range of Homer's work—oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and etchings, as well as approximately 120 wood engravings and other reproductions from the Clark's collections.
Winslow Homer at the Clark: a series of videos produced by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute that explore the themes, contexts and techniques of Winslow Homer works in the Clark collection.


Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Winslow Homer Gallery at MuseumSyndicate

Philip C. Beam papers, c. 1946– c. 1993
Homer historian and his related collection from the Smithsonian
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...
.
Winslow Homer collection at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Homer, Winslow 1836 births 1910 deaths Landscape artists Art Students League of New York alumni Artists from Boston Gilded Age People from Scarborough, Maine Realist painters American marine artists American watercolorists Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers American landscape painters Painters from Florida History of Key West, Florida Olympic competitors in art competitions People from Cullercoats Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters