Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, ca 1880. Source: National Gallery website

A couple of posts back, in writing about outdoor painting, Winslow Homer's work was one of the examples. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) is justly considered one of the great American painters. Born in Boston, he was apprenticed to a lithographer at age 19 but by 1857 Homer struck out on his own as an illustrator. The work appealed to him and he was good at it. During the Civil War he spent time with units of the Army of the Potomac and produced hundreds of drawings and sketches of camp life, individual soldiers, and battles.

"Snap the Whip," 1872

Mr. Homer seems to have been a very self-assured young man who later commented that once he left his apprenticeship he never had another master. And indeed, with the exception of that apprenticeship he seems to have been mostly self-taught, although he did learn the basics of painting from another artist and briefly attended the National Academy of Design. He clearly understood composition and drawing and assimilated the tenets of painting very quickly. After the Civil War he turned to domestic subjects--women, childhood ("Snap the Whip," above, for example), and a sense of home and nostalgia, and by 1875 had completely abandoned illustration for a career as a painter. 

"Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)," 1873-76

In his maturity Mr. Homer first lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he had customarily spent summers, becoming enraptured by the sea, those who made their living on it. His subject matter changed too, reflecting that interest. He began exhibiting pictures like "Breezing Up" (above), which was very popular when first shown and later was the subject of a U.S. postage stamp. Later, settling in Prouts Neck, Maine, where he produced a number of important paintings of marine subjects. 

"The Herring Net," 1885

"The Life Line," 1884

Besides oil paintings Mr. Homer also produced brilliantly executed watercolors either as stand alone artworks or as preliminary studies for oils. Although his marine paintings were praised, they seem to have been a hard sell, but his watercolors provided him with both opportunities to work and a reasonable amount of income. He spent winters in warmer places like Key West, the Bahamas, and Cuba, and made many watercolors during those visits, as well. 

"Salt Kettle, Bermuda," watercolor, 1899

 

 

"Key West, Hauling Anchor," watercolor, 1903

"The Homosassa River," watercolor, 1904

Today, at least to my eyes, his watercolors are still fresh and timely. Mr. Homer may have been mostly self-taught, but he remains one of the finest painters ever produced in North America.