FEATURED ARTIST  - June 2006

Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910)

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Homer was apprenticed to a Boston commercial lithographer at the age of 19. By 1857 his freelance illustration career was underway and he contributed to magazines such as Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly. His works, mostly engravings, are characterized by clean outlines, simplified forms, dramatic contrast of light and dark, and lively figure groupings — qualities that remained important throughout his career.

An Afterglow	Boy Fishing

In 1859 he opened a studio in New York City, and began his painting career. Harper's sent Homer to the front lines of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), where he sketched battle scenes and mundane camp life. Although the drawings did not get much attention at the time, they influenced much of his later work. Back at his studio after the war, Homer set to work on real war-related paintings, among them Sharpshooter on Picket Duty, and Prisoners from the Front which is noted for its objectivity and realism.

Breezing Up	Sunset Fires

After exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, Homer traveled to Paris, France in 1867 where he remained for a year. He practiced painting landscapes while continuing to work for Harper's. Though his interest in depicting natural light parellels the impressionists interest in natural light, the group did not directly affect his work. Throughout the 1870s he portrayed mostly rural or idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, and resorts. Homer gained acclaim as a painter in the late 1870s and early 1880s. His 1872 composition, Snap-the-Whip, showed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Blue Boat	Casting, Number Two

In 1873 he started painting with watercolours, and the medium became as important to him as oil paint. His watercolor painting's show a fresh, spontaneous, loose, yet natural style. Thereafter, Homer seldom went anywhere without paper, brushes and water paints. In 1875 he quit working as a commercial illustrator, and concentrated on painting. Homer died at the age of 74 in his Prout's Neck studio and was interred in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His painting, Shoot the Rapids, remained unfinished.