The exhibition focuses on earlier works such as the paintings of Homer (1836–1910) and Salvation, painted in 1881–1882 on the North Coast of England, and the increasing renown of the artists as war drew to a close and an understanding of what war meant.
Through the 1870s Homer continued to paint mostly rural or idyllic scenes of the peasant life, children’s play and the courtship of young people, including The Country School (1871) and The Morning Bell (1872). In 1875 Homer stopped working as a commercial illustrator and vowed to survive in his paintings and watercolors. The end of the war gave Homer the opportunity to devote more to painting, although his work on illustrated printing continued until the 1870s.
For example, Homer’s first publicly exposed oil painting was a Civil War theme – a sniper sitting on a tree branch, his rifle pointed at a target – interpreted later as a woodcut for the Harpers. In the summer of 1873, when Homer began to give serious attention to watercolor painting, Homer continues to be the greatest American artist associated with the medium, criticism of his work remained controversial.
Homer was born in 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts, the second of three children of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson Homer, both of whom came from a long line of New England. The first work he did in the arts was as a typographer in Boston and New York, which eventually became his residence in 1859.
One of the most influential American painters of the nineteenth century is known for his dynamic portrayals of the power and beauty of nature and his reflections on the struggle of humanity with the sea, and Homer experimented with color, shape and composition, pushing his landscapes and genre imagery in contemporary directions. An underestimated aspect of the work of Winslow Homer, one of America’s most iconic artists, is the relationship between his painting and photography and the role of a relatively new medium in his approach to imaging.
From the start, the paintings he created, augmented with a hint of a hint of mortality, include some of the most intricate depictions of his career. For many, the perception of the landscape itself was incomplete without the airspace.
Winslow Homer (born February 24th, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA – September 29, 1910 in Pruts Neck, Maine) is an American artist whose work on marine themes is one of the most striking and expressive of his times.
Later, when Winslow Homer spent the years in the village of Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear between 1881 and 1882, his paintings of coastlines and coastal landscapes changed : many paintings on the English coast show men and women working in the area.
Winslow Homer’s influence continued into the 20th century, especially among artists who largely rejected European-inspired abstraction trends and who continued to pursue a distinct American voice in their art. Among American regionalists, Homer’s vision found greater resonance with Edward Hopper’s realistic paintings whose cityscapes correspond to Homer’s eerie silence of desolate seascapes. Somewhat surprising is Homer’s influence on artists who most readily identify with European abstraction influences from the early 20th
These works are exhibited alongside paintings by British artists, complicating our understanding of Homer’s art as pure American in plot and style. Judith K. Walsh, Distinguished Professor of Paper Conservation at Buffalo State College, talks about Homer’s work style as seen through his lens as an environmental scientist.
