Terry Madden E-Newsletter - October 9 - Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was one of the greatest American watercolor painters of the 19^th century. Known for his maritime paintings and landscapes, he also painted in oils.  

An average student, he demonstrated talent for art early in his life and transitioned from local subjects in and around his Boston home to Civil War portraits, including his popular oil on canvas, “Prisoners on the Front.’  Many of his early works were oils.

           

             A Game of Croquet (1866)                 Prisoners on the Front (1866)

After spending time in France in his early 30’s, he returned home and became enamored with watercolors.  And, he created some of his most popular oil on canvas works first on watercolor, including ‘Breezing Up, (1873)’ which became a commemorative U.S. postage stamp in 1962.

     

           Breezing Up Watercolor       Oil on Canvas                Commemorative Stamp

In his late 30s and early 40s he created many of his watercolor pastorals and country scenes.  

       

 Warm Afternoon (1878)    The Milkmaid (1878)     Eastern Point Lighthouse (1880)

But fell into a darker and more solitary time around 1880, when he painted ‘Eastern Point Lighthouse.’  

He soon left for England and spent two years painting primarily with watercolors.

          

Houses of Parliament (1881)            3 Fisher Girls (1881)

When he returned to Maine he set up his studio in Prouts Neck, near Portland. Some historians have refered to this time as his 'mature' years, when his painting became 'high art.'  He traveled to the Caribbean, Florida and Cuba and his work took on a brighter personality.  His travels impacted his subjects for years to come.

   

       Garden in Nassau (1885)                      Sponge Diver (1898)

And, by his early 50's, he was creating some of his most important maritime works, like Eight Bells (1886).

In his early 60s, Homer painted his famous 'Gulfstream' oil on canvas (1899), but like his earlier 'Breezing Up,' it was first created as a watercolor ten years earlier.

           

Watercolor Study for Gulfstream (1889)       The Gulfstream (1899) Oil on Canvas

In 1910, at age 74, Homer died at his studio in Maine, leaving unfinished his final painting, “Shooting the Rapids.”

  Shooting the Rapids (1910)

He is considered by some the greatest American painter of the 19th century and he had a great influence on later Americans like NC Wyeth and his sons Andrew and James, among others.  

    

     Winslow Homer's Paint Palette                 Homer's Sable Rounds

By Lou Escalante 

Sources & For More Information: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/homer

http://www.winslowhomer.org/

http://www.winslow-homer.com/