Snap the Whip - Kyrene School District · Snap the Whip Artist: Winslow Homer Created: ... Featured...

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Snap the Whip Artist: Winslow Homer Created: 1872 Dimensions (cm): 91.4 x 55.9 Format: Oil on canvas Location: Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA Perhaps Winslow Homer’s most beloved and popular painting was ‘Snap the Whip’, created with oil on canvas in 1872. The historic painting depicts nine young boys playing the age-old game entitled ‘Snap the Whip’. The children are pulling and tugging each other back and forth, while the two at the end of the line have fallen over. The soft, glow of sunlight that peaks through the clouds illuminates their faces. Their clothing, more specifically their caps, suspenders, and short pants, reflects true late 1800 American attire. Featured in the background is the familiar little red school house; the school teachers in the distance are most likely meant to be supervising the usual recess activity. The scenic landscape of trees and wildflowers bordering a small field is so realistic that the viewer can almost hear the chirping of the birds and the buzzing of the insects. Winslow Homer created a second, much smaller version of this painting, replacing the mountain range in the background with a wide, blue sky. ‘Snap the Whip’ was a huge success for the artist, and the painting was frequently reproduced. It was displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Analysis and Reviews Robert Hughes (Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists) once said, “Some major artists create popular stereotypes that last for decades; others never reach into popular culture at all. Winslow Homer was a painter of the first kind. Even today, 150 years after his birth, one sees his echoes on half the magazine racks of America.” Henry James once stated of Winslow Homer’s work, “We frankly confess that we detest his subjects...he has chosen the least pictorial range of scenery and civilization; he has

Transcript of Snap the Whip - Kyrene School District · Snap the Whip Artist: Winslow Homer Created: ... Featured...

Snap the Whip

Artist: Winslow Homer Created: 1872 Dimensions (cm): 91.4 x 55.9 Format: Oil on canvas Location: Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA

Perhaps Winslow Homer’s most beloved and popular painting was ‘Snap the Whip’, created with oil on canvas in 1872. The historic painting depicts nine young boys playing the age-old game entitled ‘Snap the Whip’. The children are pulling and tugging each other back and forth, while the two at the end of the line have fallen over. The soft, glow of sunlight that peaks through the clouds illuminates their faces. Their clothing, more specifically their caps, suspenders, and short pants, reflects true late 1800 American attire. Featured in the background is the familiar little red school house; the school teachers in the distance are most likely meant to be supervising the usual recess activity. The scenic landscape of trees and wildflowers bordering a small field is so realistic that the viewer can almost hear the chirping of the birds and the buzzing of the insects. Winslow Homer created a second, much smaller version of this painting, replacing the mountain range in the background with a wide, blue sky. ‘Snap the Whip’ was a huge success for the artist, and the painting was frequently reproduced. It was displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

Analysis and Reviews

Robert Hughes (Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists) once said, “Some major artists create popular stereotypes that last for decades; others never reach into popular culture at all. Winslow Homer was a painter of the first kind. Even today, 150 years after his birth, one sees his echoes on half the magazine racks of America.”

Henry James once stated of Winslow Homer’s work, “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".

What is the value of a Winslow Homer painting?

In 1998, one of Homer’s paintings entitled “Lost on the Grand Banks” sold for approximately 30 million dollars! It is estimated that Homer created 600 works of art, but very few are owned privately; most are safely kept in museums. ‘Snap the Whip’ is currently located at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.

Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910)

19th- and 20th-century American Painting and Works on Paper

Girl Picking Clover (Houghton Farm)

Winslow Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Cambridge, Mass. At age 19, Homer was apprenticed to Boston commercial lithographer, John H. Bufford. Soon after, in 1857, he began free-lancing as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly magazine. He moved to New York in 1859 and worked for Harper's while taking evening life-drawing classes at the National Academy of Design, and taking a few painting lessons from a genre and landscape painter. He was sent by Harper's to Washington, D. C. to cover the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, and, after the Civil War erupted, to record the activities of the Army of the Potomac. During the war, Homer traveled between New York, where he continued his drawing classes at the National Academy, and Virginia where he illustrated various campaigns for Harper's. Homer made his artistic debut with two paintings at the National Academy annual exhibition in 1863, to considerable critical acclaim. In 1864, Homer was elected an Associate Academician, and in 1865, a full Academician. He sailed for France in 1866, spending a year in the artists' colony in Cernay-la-ville. His now famous paintings, Prisoners from the Front, and The Bright Side were exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle. The 1870s was a significant decade in Homer's development. He made his first of many trips to the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State in 1870; in 1871, he moved to the Tenth Street Studio Building, a center of artistic activity where other important American artists had their studios at that time, including Frederic E. Church, John La Farge, Sanford R. Gifford and John Ferguson Weir. In 1873, Homer summered at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and began his first serious watercolors, some of which were exhibited the following year at the annual exhibition of the American Society of Painters in Watercolor. In 1875, he first visited Prout's Neck, Maine (where he settled in 1883), and ended his career as a commercial illustrator. The following year, he first spent time at friend Lawson Valentine's Houghton's Farm in Mountainsville, New York, where he began a series of delightful watercolors of children and young people in the outdoors, enjoying various summertime pleasures.

Between 1881 and 1882, he spent nearly two years at Cullercoats, near Newcastle, England, and produced a striking series of watercolors and oils depicting the life of the sea-faring culture along that rugged coast. After his return to New York, he settled in Prout's Neck Maine, and began his annual wintertime trips to Florida, Cuba, Bermuda, and the Bahamas, a habit he continued until 1909. Between 1884 and 1887, he produced the series of oils which firmly established his reputation: The Life Line, The Herring Net, The Fog Warning, Lost in the Grand Banks, Breezing Up, Undertow, and Eight Bells. In 1889, Homer began regular trips to the Adirondacks, and in 1890, he produced his first seascapes. Homer was a regular participant in annual exhibitions, showing his oils and watercolors in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. His paintings were often awarded gold medals. Homer exhibited fifteen paintings in 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair. Beginning in 1900, museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, began to purchase his oils. His reputation as one of America's most significant artists has never waned. He was recognized early on as a realist who was consistently devoted to revealing truth. His subjects ranged from children at work and play, to men and women and the harsh realities they faced in their everyday lives, to the inner quiet of woods shattered by greedy huntsmen and woodsmen, to the glorious color of Caribbean light, to the sea restlessly and relentlessly pounding the rocky and inhospitable shores of Maine.

Selected Permanent Collections:

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts Art Institute of Chicago

Brooklyn Museum The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, at the National Gallery of Art,New York City, 1880,

photo by Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896)

Birthname

Winslow Homer

Born February 24, 1836Boston, Massachusetts

Died September 29, 1910(aged 74)Prouts Neck, Maine

Nationality American

Field DrawingWood engravingOil paintingWatercolor painting

Training Lithography apprenticeship, 1855-56National Academy of Design(painting), 1863Paris, France (informal), 1867

Movement Realism

Works Harper's Weekly MagazineBallou's Pictorial Magazine

Influenced Frederic RemingtonRobert HenriHoward PyleN. C. Wyeth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910)was an American landscape painter and printmaker, bestknown for his marine subjects. He is considered one of theforemost painters in 19th century America and a preeminentfigure in American art.

Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as acommercial illustrator.[1] He subsequently took up oil paintingand produced major studio works characterized by the weightand density he exploited from the medium. He also workedextensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre,primarily chronicling his working vacations.[2][3]

1 Early life2 Gallery3 Homer's studio4 Early landscapes and watercolors5 England6 Maine and maturity7 Influence8 Homer honored on US Postage9 References10 Further reading11 External links

Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836, Homer was thesecond of three sons of Charles Savage Homer and HenriettaBenson Homer, both from long lines of New Englanders. Hismother was a gifted amateur watercolorist and Homer's firstteacher, and she and her son had a close relationshipthroughout their lives. Homer took on many of her traits,including her quiet, strong-willed, terse, sociable nature; herdry sense of humor; and her artistic talent.[4] Homer had ahappy childhood, growing up mostly in then rural Cambridge,Massachusetts. He was an average student, but his art talentwas evident in his early years.

Homer's father was a volatile, restless businessman who wasalways looking to "make a killing". When Homer was thirteen,

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The Bathers, wood engraving,Harper's Weekly, 1873

Charles gave up the hardware store business to seek a fortune in the California gold rush. When that failed,Charles left his family and went to Europe to raise capital for other get-rich-quick schemes that didn'tmaterialize.[5]

After Homer's high school graduation, his father saw a newspaperadvertisement and arranged for an apprenticeship. Homer'sapprenticeship at the age of 19 to J. H. Bufford, a Boston commerciallithographer, was a formative but "treadmill experience".[6] He workedrepetitively on sheet music covers and other commercial work for twoyears. By 1857, his freelance career was underway after he turned downan offer to join the staff of Harper's Weekly. "From the time I took mynose off that lithographic stone", Homer later stated, "I have had nomaster, and never shall have any."[7]

Homer's career as an illustrator lasted nearly twenty years. Hecontributed illustrations of Boston life and rural New England life tomagazines such as Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly,[8] at a timewhen the market for illustrations was growing rapidly, and when fads andfashions were changing quickly. His early works, mostly commercialengravings of urban and country social scenes, are characterized by cleanoutlines, simplified forms, dramatic contrast of light and dark, and livelyfigure groupings — qualities that remained important throughout hiscareer.[9] His quick success was mostly due to this strong understandingof graphic design and also to the adaptability of his designs to woodengraving.

Unlike many artists who were well-known for working in only one art medium, Winslow Homer was prominentin a variety of art media, as in the following examples:

The War for the Union,1862, wood engraving(multiple museumcollections)

The Bridle Path, 1868, oilpainting (Clark ArtInstitute)

A Rainy Day in Camp,1871, oil on canvas.Private collection

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Gloucester Harbor, 1873,oil on canvas. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Song of the Lark, 1876, oilon canvas. ChryslerMuseum of Art

Camp Fire, 1877–1878, oilon canvas. MetropolitanMuseum of Art

Perils of the Sea, 1881,watercolor. Sterling andFrancine Clark ArtInstitute

Santiago de Cuba: StreetScene, 1885. watercolorand graphite. YaleUniversity Art Gallery

Improve the Present Hour,c. 1889, etching (multiplemuseum collections)

After the Hurricane,Bahamas, 1899,watercolor (Art Institute ofChicago)[10]

The Red Canoe, 1889,watercolor, PeabodyCollection

The new novel, 1877,Museum of Fine arts,Springfield, Massachusetts

In 1859, he opened a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City, the artistic and publishingcapital of the United States. Until 1863 he attended classes at the National Academy of Design, and studied

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Thanksgiving in Camp, woodengraving, Harper's Weekly, 1862

Two Are Company, Three Are None,wood engraving, Harper's Weekly,1872

briefly with Frédéric Rondel, who taught him the basics of painting.[11] 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 furtherstudy but instead Harper's sent Homer to the front lines of the American Civil War (1861–1865), where hesketched battle scenes and camp life, the quiet moments as well as the murderous ones.[12] His initial sketcheswere of the camp, commanders, and army of the famous Union officer, Major General George B. McClellan, atthe banks of the Potomac River in October, 1861.

Although the drawings did notget much attention at the time,they mark Homer's expandingskills from illustrator to painter.Like with his urban scenes,Homer also illustrated womenduring war time, and showed theeffects of the war on the homefront. The war work wasdangerous and exhausting. Backat his studio, however, Homerwould regain his strength and

re-focus his artistic vision. He set to work on a series of war-relatedpaintings based on his sketches, among them Sharpshooter on Picket Duty (1862), Home, Sweet Home (1863),and Prisoners from the Front (1866).[13] He exhibited paintings of these subjects every year at the NationalAcademy of Design from 1863 to 1866.[8] Home, Sweet Home was shown at the National Academy to particularcritical acclaim; it was quickly sold and the artist was consequently elected an Associate Academician, then afull Academician in 1865.[11] During this time, he also continued to sell his illustrations to periodicals such asOur Young Folks and Frank Leslie's Chimney Corner.[8]

After the war, Homer turned his attention primarily to scenes of childhood and young women, reflectingnostalgia for simpler times, both his own and the nation as a whole. His Crossing the Pasture (1871–1872)depicts two boys who idealize brotherhood with the hope of a united future after the war that pitted brotheragainst brother.[14]

At nearly the beginning of his painting career, the twenty-seven year old Homer demonstrated a maturity offeeling, depth of perception, and mastery of technique which was immediately recognized. His realism wasobjective, true to nature, and emotionally controlled. One critic wrote, "Winslow Homer is one of those fewyoung artists who make a decided impression of their power with their very first contributions to theAcademy...He at this moment wields a better pencil, models better, colors better, than many whom, were it notimproper, 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 arenot surpassed in the whole exhibition." "It is a work of real feeling, soldiers in camp listening to the eveningband, and thinking of the wives and darlings far away. There is no strained effect in it, no sentimentality, but ahearty, homely actuality, broadly, freely, and simply worked out."[13]

After exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, Homer finally traveled to Paris, France in 1867 where heremained for a year. His most praised early painting, Prisoners from the Front, was on exhibit at the ExpositionUniverselle in Paris at the same time.[13] He did not study formally but he practiced landscape painting while

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Artists Sketching in the White

Mountains, 1868, oil on panel(Portland Museum of Art, Portland,Maine)[15]

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind),1873–76, oil on canvas(National Gallery of Art, Washington,D.C.)[18]

continuing to work for Harper's, depicting scenes of Parisian life.

Homer painted about a dozen small paintings during the stay. Althoughhe arrived in France at a time of new fashions in art, Homer's mainsubject for his paintings was peasant life, showing more of an alignmentwith the established French Barbizon school and the artist Millet thanwith newer artists Manet and Courbet. Though his interest in depictingnatural light parallels that of the early impressionists, there is noevidence of direct influence as he was already a plein-air painter inAmerica and had already evolved a personal style which was muchcloser to Manet than Monet. Unfortunately, Homer was very privateabout his personal life and his methods (even denying his first biographerany personal information or commentary), but his stance was clearly oneof independence of style and a devotion to American subjects. As hisfellow artist Eugene Benson wrote, Homer believed that artists "should never look at pictures" but should"stutter in a language of their own."[16]

Throughout the 1870s, Homer continued painting mostly rural or idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, andyoung adults courting, including Country School (1871) and The Morning Bell (1872). In 1875, Homer quitworking as a commercial illustrator and vowed to survive on his paintings and watercolors alone. Despite hisexcellent critical reputation, his finances continued to remain precarious.[17] His popular 1872 paintingSnap-the-Whip was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as was one of hisfinest and most famous paintings Breezing Up (1876). Of his work at this time, Henry James wrote:

"We frankly confess that we detest his subjects...he has chosen the leastpictorial range of scenery and civilization; he has resolutely treated themas if they were pictorial...and, to reward his audacity, he hasincontestably succeeded."[19]

Many disagreed with James. Breezing Up, Homer's iconic painting of afather and three boys out for a spirited sail, received wide praise. TheNew York Tribune wrote, "There is no picture in this exhibition, nor canwe remember when there has been a picture in any exhibition, that canbe named alongside this." Visits to Petersburg, Virginia around 1876resulted in paintings of rural African American life. The samestraightforward sensibility which allowed Homer to distill art from thesepotentially sentimental subjects also yielded the most unaffected viewsof African American life at the time, as illustrated in Dressing for the

Carnival (1877) and A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876).[20]

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 unusualsculpture by the Artist, Hunter with Dog - Northwoods, was exhibited in 1902. By that year, Homer hadswitched 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 ideasand organize outings for painting, as well as foster the creation of decorative tiles. For a short time, he designedtiles for fireplaces.[21] Homer's nickname in The Tile Club was "The Obtuse Bard". Other well known Tilers

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Cloud Shadows, 1890, oil on canvas (SpencerMuseum of Art, University of Kansas,Lawrence)[22]

Fisherwomen, Cullercoats, graphite andwatercolor on paper 1881, Honolulu Academyof Arts

were painters William Merritt Chase, Arthur Quartley, and the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens.

Homer started painting with watercolors on a regular basis in1873 during a summer stay in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fromthe beginning, his technique was natural, fluid and confident,demonstrating his innate talent for a difficult medium. His impactwould be revolutionary. Here, again, the critics were puzzled atfirst, "A child with an ink bottle could not have done worse."[23]

Another critic said that Homer "made a sudden and desperateplunge into water color painting". But his watercolors provedpopular and enduring, and sold more readily, improving hisfinancial condition considerably. They varied from highlydetailed (Blackboard – 1877) to broadly impressionistic(Schooner at Sunset – 1880). Some watercolors were made aspreparatory sketches for oil paintings (as for "Breezing Up") andsome as finished works in themselves. Thereafter, he seldomtraveled without paper, brushes and water based paints.[24]

As a result of disappointments with women or from some otheremotional turmoil, Homer became reclusive in the late 1870s, nolonger 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 thefishermen, the sea, and the marine weather. After 1880, he rarelyfeatured genteel women at leisure, focusing instead on workingwomen.[25]

Homer spent two years (1881 – 1882) in the English coastalvillage of Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear. Many of the paintings atCullercoats took as their subjects working men and women andtheir daily heroism, imbued with a solidity and sobriety which was new to Homer's art, presaging the direction ofhis future work.[8] He wrote, "The women are the working bees. Stout hardy creatures."[26] His palette becameconstrained and sober; his paintings larger, more ambitious, and more deliberately conceived and executed. Hissubjects more universal and less nationalistic, more heroic by virtue of his unsentimental rendering. Although hemoved 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.[27]

Back in the U.S. in November 1882, Homer showed his English watercolors in New York. Critics noticed thechange 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."[29] Homer's women were no longer "dolls who flaunttheir millinery" but "sturdy, fearless, fit wives and mothers of men" who are fully capable of enduring the forcesand vagaries of nature along side their men.[30]

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Sunlight on the Coast, 1890(Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio)[28]

The Fox Hunt, 1893. Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 174cm. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

In 1883, Homer moved to Prouts Neck, Maine (in Scarborough)and lived at his family's estate in the remodeled carriage housejust seventy-five feet from the ocean.[31] During the rest of themid-1880s, Homer painted his monumental sea scenes. InUndertow (1886), depicting the dramatic rescue of two femalebathers by two male lifeguards, Homer's figures "have the weightand authority of classical figures".[32] In Eight Bells (1886), twosailors carefully take their bearings on deck, calmly appraisingtheir position and by extension, their relationship with the sea;they are confident in their seamanship but respectful of theforces before them. Other notable paintings among thesedramatic struggle-with-nature images are Banks Fisherman, TheGulf Stream, Rum Cay, Mending the Nets, and Searchlight,

Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba. Some of these he repeated as etchings.[33]

At fifty years of age, Homer had become a "Yankee Robinson Crusoe, cloistered on his art island" and "a hermitwith a brush". These paintings established Homer, as the New York Evening Post wrote, "in a place by himself asthe most original and one of the strongest of American painters."[31] But despite his critical recognition, Homer'swork never achieved the popularity of traditional Salon pictures or of the flattering portraits by John SingerSargent. Many of the sea pictures took years to sell and Undertow only earned him $400.[34]

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 domineeringfather and Mattie became his closest female intimate.[35] In the winters of 1884-5, Homer ventured to warmerlocations in Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas, and did a series of watercolors as part of a commission for CenturyMagazine. He replaced the turbulent green storm-tossed sea of Prouts Neck with the sparkling blue skies of theCaribbean, and the hardy New Englanders with the leisurely Black natives, further expanding his watercolortechnique, subject matter, and palette.[36] During this trip he painted Children Under a Palm Tree for LadyBlake, the Governor's wife. His tropical stays inspired and refreshed him in much the same way as PaulGauguin's trips to Tahiti.[37] A Garden in Nassau (1885) is one of the best examples of these watercolors. Onceagain, his freshness and originality were praised by critics, but proved too advanced for the traditional art buyersand he "looked in vain for profits." Homer lived frugally, however, and fortunately, his affluent brother Charlesprovided financial help when needed.[38]

Additionally, Homer found inspiration in a number of summertrips to the North Woods Club, near the hamlet of Minerva,New York in the Adirondack Mountains. It was on these fishingvacations that he experimented freely with the watercolormedium, producing works of the utmost vigor and subtlety,hymns to solitude, nature, and to outdoor life. Homer doesn'tshrink from the savagery of blood sports nor the struggle forsurvival. The color effects are boldly and facilely applied. Interms of quality and invention, Homer's achievements as awatercolorist are unparalleled: "Homer had used his singularvision and manner of painting to create a body of work that hasnot been matched."[39]

In 1893, Homer painted one of his most famous "Darwinian" works, The Fox Hunt, which depicts a flock ofstarving crows descending on a fox slowed by deep snow. This was Homer's largest painting and it was

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The Gulf Stream, 1899, oil on canvas,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Rowing Home, 1890, watercolor(Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.)

immediately purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, his first painting in a major Americanmuseum collection.[40] 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.[41]

By 1900, Homer finally reached financial stability, as hispaintings fetched good prices from museums and he began toreceive rents from real estate properties. He also became free ofthe responsibilities of caring for his father who had died twoyears earlier.[42] Homer continued producing excellentwatercolors, mostly on trips to Canada and the Caribbean. Otherlate works include sporting scenes such as Right and Left, aswell as seascapes absent of human figures, mostly of wavescrashing against rocks in varying light. In his last decade, he attimes followed the advice he gave a student artist in 1907,"Leave rocks for your old age—they're easy".[43]

Homer died in 1910 at the age of 74 in his Prouts Neck studioand was interred in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His painting, Shooting theRapids, Saguenay River, remains unfinished.

His Prouts Neck studio is now owned by the Portland Museum of Art.[44]

Homer never taught in a school or privately, as did ThomasEakins, but his works strongly influenced succeeding generationsof American painters for their direct and energetic interpretationof man's stoic relationship to an often neutral and sometimesharsh wilderness.[45] Robert Henri called Homer's work an"integrity of nature."[46]

American illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle revered Homerand encouraged his students to study him. His student and fellowillustrator, N. C. Wyeth (and through him Andrew Wyeth andJamie Wyeth), shared the influence and appreciation, evenfollowing Homer to Maine for inspiration.[47] The elder Wyeth’srespect for his antecedent was "intense and absolute," and canbe observed in his early work Mowing (1907).[48] PerhapsHomer's austere individualism is best captured in his admonitionto artists:

"Look at nature, work independently, and solve your ownproblems."

In 1962, the U.S. Post Office released a commemorative stamp

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Winslow Homer commemorative issue of 1962honoring Winslow Homer. Homer's famous oil painting"Breezing Up", now hanging in the National Gallery inWashington DC, was chosen as the image for the design of thisissue.[49] 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 aseries entitled "American Treasures". The original painting is part of the Hayden Collection at the Museum ofFine Arts in Boston.[50]

^ Poole, Robert M. Hidden Depths(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/depths-homer.html) . Smithsonian Magazine. April 2008.Retrieved 22 May 2008.

1.

^ Cooper, Helen A., Winslow Homer Watercolors, p.16. Yale University Press, 1986.

2.

^ Hoeber, Arthur (February 1911). "Winslow Homer,A Painter Of The Sea" (http://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14009) . TheWorld's Work: A History of Our Time XXI:14009–14017. http://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14009.Retrieved 2009-07-10.

3.

^ Cooper, p. 16.4.^ Elizabeth Johns, Winslow Homer: The Nature ofObservation, University of California Press,Berkeley, 2002, p. 9, ISBN 0-520-22725-5.

5.

^ Cikovsky, Jr., Nicolai (1990), Winslow Homer,New York: Harry N. Abrams, pp. 11–13,ISBN 0-8109-1193-0; Roberts, Norma J., ed. (1988),The American Collections, Columbus Museum ofArt, p. 2, ISBN 0-8109-1811-0 (stating age at time ofapprenticeship as 18)

6.

^ Johns (2002), p. 13.7.^ a b c d Roberts, Norma J., ed. (1988), The AmericanCollections, Columbus Museum of Art, p. 2,ISBN 0-8109-1811-0.

8.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 129.^ After the Hurricane at The Art Institute of Chicago(http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/16776)

10.

^ a b Cooper, p. 13.11.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 15.12.^ a b c Cikovsky (1990), p. 16.13.^ Exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth,Texas

14.

^ Artists Sketching the White Mountains at thePortland Museum of Art, Maine(http://www.portlandmuseum.org/exhibitions-collections/search.php?searchby=Title&term=Artists+Sketching&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=11)

15.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 32, 42.16.^ Johns (2002), p. 84.17.^ Breezing Up at the National Gallery of Art18.

(http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=30228)^ Quoted by Updike, John: "Epic Homer", StillLooking: Essays on American Art, p. 58. Alfred A.Knopf, 2005.

19.

^ Updike, John, page 69, 2005. "Among his featsmay be listed the best, least caricatural portraits ofpostbellum African Americans,"

20.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 65.21.^ Cloud Shadows at the Spencer Museum of Art,University of Kansas (http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/collection/europeanamerican/homer.shtml)

22.

^ Rough Notes on the Exhibition of the AmericanWater Color Society for 1881, "Andrews' AmericanQueen", page 110. February 12, 1881.

23.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 57.24.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 72.25.^ Johns (2002), p. 98.26.^ Cikovsky (1990), pp. 75-79.27.^ Sunlight on the Coast at the Toledo Museum ofArt, Ohio (http://www.toledomuseum.org/Collection/Homer_Sunlight.htm)

28.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 81.29.^ Johns (2002), p. 105.30.^ a b Cikovsky (1990), p. 91.31.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 84.32.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 94.33.^ Johns (2002), p. 122.34.^ Johns (2002), p. 114.35.^ Johns (2002), p. 124.36.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 100.37.^ Johns (2002), pp. 127-128.38.^ Walsh, Judith: "Innovation in Homer's LateWatercolors", Winslow Homer, page 283. NationalGallery of Art, 1995.

39.

^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 115.40.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 120.41.^ Johns (2002), pp. 127-150.42.^ Cikovsky (1990), p. 131.43.^ Portland Museum (http://www.portlandmuseum.org/about/homerstudio.shtml)

44.

^ See Lost on the Grand Banks, collection of BillGates

45.

^ Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, Harper Collins, 198446.

Winslow Homer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer

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^ An American Vision: Three Generations of WyethArt, New York Graphic Society, 1987, p. 68, ISBN0-8212-1652-X.

47.

^ Wyeth (1987), p. 38.48.^ Scott's United States stamp catalogue49.

^ Shops.usps.com (https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10006988&langId=-1)

50.

Murphy, Alexandra R. Winslow Homer in the Clark Collection. Williamstown, Mass: Sterling andFrancine Clark Art Institute, 1986. ISBN 0931102197

Wood, Peter H. "Winslow Homer and the American Civil War" (http://www.southernspaces.org/2011/winslow-homer-and-american-civil-war) A lecture on Homer's painting "Near Andersonville"and his relationship to the Civil War. Southern Spaces, 4 March 2011.Half thousand works by Winslow Homer at www.Winslow-Homer.com (http://www.winslow-homer.com)Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art (http://www.nga.gov/feature/homer/) This Web Featuretraces the artist's career from the late 1850s until his death in 1910, and includes zoomable images withhigh resolution details.White Mountain paintings by Winslow Homer (http://whitemountainart.com/ArtistGalleries/gal_who.htm)Winslow Homer Artwork Examples on AskART. (http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/Search_Repeat.aspx?searchtype=IMAGES&artist=21592)"Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History" (http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/homer/home.cfm) Exhibition held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in 2005. The exhibitionwebsite showcases the range of Homer's work—oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and etchings, aswell as approximately 120 wood engravings and other reproductions from the Clark's collections.Winslow Homer biography, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/homr/hd_homr.htm)Winslow Homer Gallery at MuseumSyndicate (http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=335)Winslow Homer papers online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art (http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/homewinl/)Philip C. Beam papers, c. 1946- c. 1993 (http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/philip-c-beam-papers-6152) ; Homer historian and his related collection from the Smithsonian Archives of AmericanArt.

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Winslow Homer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer

10 of 10 9/26/2011 11:38 AM