WINSLO W HOMER 1836 1910 BEGINNINGS Winslow Homer

WINSLO W HOMER (1836 -1910)

BEGINNINGS • Winslow Homer was one of the most famous American artists of the nineteenth century. • He was born in Boston and began his career as a commercial printmaker (helping to make sheet music covers and newspapers). • What happened in the middle of the nineteenth century? • In 1861, when he was 25, Homer began working for a magazine to document the Civil War. • Could he just take some photographs? • He became an illustrator, traveling to battlefields to draw pictures that would show people around the country what was going on with the war. • Homer did rough sketches and wood engravings. • Homer traveled into the war zone and traveled with the Union army. • What were important skills for someone who had a job as a war illustrator?

The War for the Union, 1862, A Cavalry Charge”

Sharpshooter on Picket Duty: 1862

Homer often made more than one version of the same picture. Compare and contrast these two pictures.

Life After the War • Homer became famous in the United States because of his wartime artwork. • After the Civil War, Homer turned to everyday life in the new America for his subject matter. • At first, he concentrated on painting people. • His paintings show ordinary people at work or at play. • He showed his subjects in natural light as they really appeared. The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside), 1870, oil on canvas

The Veteran in a New Field, 1865

• One of Homer’s favorite subjects during the 1870’s was a solitary woman absorbed in thought or work. • He painted his first series of watercolors in 1873. THE MILK MAID, 1878, WATERCOLOR OVER GRAPHITE ON PAPER

LANDSCAPES AND SEASIDE VISTAS • Gradually, Homer drifted towards paintings of grand landscapes and seaside views. • He moved to Maine and traveled to the Caribbean. Snap the Wind, 1872

WHAT DIFFERENCES CAN YOU FIND BETWEEN THESE TWO VERSIONS OF SNAP THE WHIP?

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873 -1876, oil on canvas. Go see this at the National Gallery!

Girl Carrying a Basket, 1882, watercolor over graphite on paper

The Life Line Not a painting from real life. Homer did this after watching a demonstration of this type of “breeches buoy” used to make rescues from sea.