Winslow Homer
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker, most famous 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, and subsequently took up oil painting, producing major works in the studio characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium, and watercolor, with which he created a fluid and prolific oeuvre primarily chronicling his working vacations.
Influence
Homer never taught in a school or privately, as did Thomas Eakins, 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 called Homer's work an "integrity of nature."
American illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle revered Homer and encouraged his students to study him. His student and fellow illustrator, N. C. Wyeth (and through him Andrew Wyeth 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."
Principal works
- Home, Sweet Home (1863)
- Hauling Anchor (1903)
- Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1873-1876)
- Autumn (1877)
- Hound and Hunter (1892)
- Right and Left (1909)
- The Sick Chicken (1874)
- Girl with a Hay Rake (1878)
- Incoming Tide, Scarboro, Maine (1883)
- La Corde de sauvetage (1884), Philadelphia Museum of Art
- A Good Shot, Adirondacks (1892)
- Salt Kettle, Bermuda (1899)
- The Coming Storm (1901)
- Summer Night by Winslow Homer