None of Them Knew the Color of the Sky
The Fog Warning In 1885 Winslow Homer was about 50 years old and, along John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler, was one of the two or three most famous artists in America. He was living alone and in relative seclusion on the coast of Maine. An article in the publication American Water Color Society reported that he had withdrawn into “grim and misanthropic seclusion”. He was notoriously gruff in his rare interactions with the public. In response to a letter from a 25 year acquaintance and noted biographer, Homer refused to cooperate with the request to provide aspects of his personal history. “I think it would probably kill me to have such a thing appear, and as the most interesting part of my life is of no concern to the public, I must decline to give you any particulars with regard to it.” Homer had no wife, no children, no students, and as few connections to the artistic community as possibly could while still trying to make a living as a professional artist. His life story has proved to be a thin study for many an art historian. The image on the screen before us was painted in 1885 and displayed that year in the Boston Gallery Doll and Richards under the title “Halibut Fishing.” It did not sell. It was probably with considerable agitation that, after some time had passed, Homer brought to the gallery director’s attention that the correct title was “The Fog Warning”. Notice of this new title was actually printed in the Boston Evening Transcript with the writer urging that viewers reintroduce themselves to the painting now that it was properly titled. The new title does bring a different focus to the picture. One realizes that this lone fisherman, with a successful day’s catch loaded in his dory, has just heard the fog horn sounded from his mother ship. He peers over his shoulder to see the fog enveloping the ship, soon no doubt to cause it to be lost from view. The fisherman has but moments to calculate a course which will allow him to find his ship in the darkness. There is no melodrama in Homer’s handling of the story, but we as viewers are suddenly jolted by our recognition of the life or death struggle about to confront the fisherman and the role chance will play in his survival. Critical reaction to the picture was generally favorable, but it did not sell. Lost on the Grand Banks While the Fog Warning is available for public view at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, this painting, Lost on the Grand Banks—also from 1885 is much harder to see in person unless you are a personal friend of 2 Bill or Melinda Gates. Bill Gates purchased this painting in 1998 for $36 million and I suspect it hangs in (one of) his living rooms. A companion piece to the image we just looked at, Lost on the Grand Banks portrays two fishermen who, though not themselves completely hidden in the fog, have lost sight of their mother ship. They peer intently into the fog hoping to find some point of orientation, but meanwhile they aimlessly drift as sea and sky seem to merge into unfathomable, indistinguishable elements. Critics applauded the “rude vigor and grim force” of the painting, but it did not sell. Eight Bells In this image, Eight Bells of 1886, we see what we have come to recognize as the artist’s distinct, somber palette where sky and sea seem to be reflections of each other. The composition is simple, the action anchored in the foreground. Again, we see man measuring his ability relative to the might of the sea, and we are given the sailor’s perspective of what that peril amount to. You will have noticed that in none of these images have we seen faces. There are no heroes in these images, no expressions of character of any sort. The figures are universal everymen, each of them engaged in a mighty struggle with nature. Eight Bells sold for $400, perhaps one tenth of the price the artists might have hoped for. It was the first oil painting Homer had sold in nearly four years. He was sufficiently disappointed that he turned away from painting these large, time-­‐consuming works to concentrate on water colors. A critic with The Philadelphia Telegraph wrote, “Mr. Homer was a great painter at one period of his history (but)…with the production of Eight Bells, Homer seems to have given up all idea of pleasing the public.” Bill and Melinda Gates and History in general would disagree with the Philadelphia critic, but he does make an interesting point; how and why did such an incredibly popular artist as the Homer of the 1870’s abruptly shift his style and lose his audience? Certainly one of the most satisfying aspects of interdisciplinary studies is the opportunity to mix and match the thinking and output of folks who belonged to a common era. With a subject as silent as Winslow Homer was on his influences, his priorities, his concerns, etc. it is certainly tempting to look at the work of his contemporaries and the news of his day in an effort to arrive at a more complete understanding of his work. I have fallen for that temptation. Portrait Stephen Crane Many of you recognized in the title of this address, “None of them knew the color of the sky”, the famous opening line in Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat”. I thought of that line as I reviewed 3 the paintings The Fog Horn and Lost on the Grand Banks and, as I thought more about it, I considered it an appropriate characterization of a post Darwinian period when many in America were disoriented as they struggled to come to terms with a new conception of the universe and of creation in general. It was a time when long held tenets were challenged and even abandoned, a time when many lost their bearings; they knew neither the color of the sky nor the firmness of their footing on earth (or heaven). There are a number of interesting parallels in the works of Crane and Homer. In recognizing them, it has led me to a greater appreciation of Winslow Homer after reading more of Crane’s work. Homer and Crane were both war-­‐time correspondents, Homer working as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly behind the lines of the Union Army during the Civil War, and Crane as a reporter in both the Spanish American war and Greco-­‐Turkish Wars for the New York Journal. Both men were deeply impacted by shipwreck and misery on the open seas. As artist and author, each was credited with devotion to a gritty, realistic aesthetic. And both men sought to express in their works their new found understanding that it was Chance-­‐-­‐not some benevolent Deity-­‐-­‐ who ruled the fortunes of men. Stephen Crane was a passenger on The Commodore, a steamer headed for Cuba that set out from Jacksonville, Florida on January 1, 1897. After ramming a sandbar on the first day out, it began to take on water through a gash in the hull. The steamer was fifteen miles from land when Captain Murphy gave orders to abandon ship. Lifeboats were filled by 23 of the 27 crewmen and passengers. The remaining four men—Captain Murphy, the engineer Billy Higgins, Cook Montgomery, and Crane—took to sea in a ten foot dinghy. One lifeboat quickly overturned, and its seven passengers returned to the sinking Commodore. Rough seas and a general panic among the seven prevented the offering of any real aid; the ship went down and Crane watched the seven men drown. Thirty hours later, the dinghy was within sight of land near Daytona, Florida. It capsized in the surf and the four men swam toward land. The Captain, with a broken arm, was not fit for the task of swimming and the Cook did not know how to swim. Crane struggled mightily in the surf and eventually found himself cast upon the shore. To his surprise, he found both the crippled Captain and the Cook safe upon the beach; the engineer Billy Higgins, fittest of the four, lay dead, face down where the waves lapped upon the beach. The experience wore heavily on Crane and became the germ of his finest prose and poetry in the remaining short years of his life. He famously recounted the story of this shipwreck in his short story, “The Open Boat”, first published I would like to later return to Crane’s story and share with you some of the passages which so remarkably parallel the images painted by Homer. But, for the moment, back to the story of Winslow Homer. Portrait of Homer Dapper, independent; slight of frame, small of stature. Meticulous in his dress. As a young man will apprentice in a lithography shop but hates working under a master. Talented. 4 Becomes an illustrator in the war and makes his mark by completing 266 drawings which will be reproduced in magazines and newspapers such as Harper’s Weekly, Ballou, etc. by and large, these illustrations are images of troops behind the scenes—not battle shots—but an eager reading audience clamored for these shots. Illustration in a weekly magazine in the 1860’s was a phenomenon not too distant from the televised reporting my generation knew during the Vietnam War. Crossing the Bridge Image from 1861 shows soldiers crossing the Potomac River in moonlight; a real-­‐time activity that gave newspaper readers a view of troop movements. Football While this image from 1865 at first seems to depict the frenetic energy of war, closer inspection reveals that Homer has captured a football game for us. If you know a little bit about 19th century college football—a sport with few rules and no protective padding for players—you’ll agree that Homer has not exaggerated the ferocity or the violence displayed in this scene. Most of his illustrations and paintings show behind the scenes activities; we do not know what battles he may have witnessed. Sharpshooter This image appeared in Harper’s Weekly in its November , 15, 1862 edition and is familiar to many. It is a startling and novel composition depicting an element of warfare which first appeared in the Civil War, that of the sharp-­‐shooter, or sniper. The 1850’s saw dramatic advances in rifle technology…ones that provided a skilled marksman the ability to fire with deadly accuracy at extraordinary range. Both the Confederate and Northern armies availed themselves of this new instrument of warfare by recruiting, training, and deploying snipers. Most famous of these sniper units was that of the Berdan sharpshooters, an outfit which served with General Mcllelan, just as Homer did. To qualify as a Berdan sharpshooter, one was required to score ten consecutive rifle shots within a 10” pattern from a range of 600 feet (that’s hitting a pie plate two football fields away). By climbing a tree, a sharpshooter could see great distances and also count on the foliage to hide the smoke from his shot. Though a single shot from a distant marksman could not provoke the damage of cannon fire, the sniper’s bullet was nonetheless an extremely damaging component of warfare. Enemy targets were typically caught totally unawares; soldiers who were relaxed in card-­‐playing or eating or letter writing would suddenly drop dead from the fire of an unseen foe. Officers who thought themselves beyond the range of fire were shot from their saddles. In fact, the highest ranking Union casualty in the entire war, 5 was General John Sedgwick who was shot in the eye by a sharpshooter at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. The shot was estimated to have carried at least 550 yards, possibly 1000 yards. Letter In a letter written in 1896—three decades after the war-­‐-­‐, Homer noted that, in April, 1862, he looked through a sharpshooter’s gun sight and considered that the sniper’s task was “as near murder as anything I could ever think of in connection with the army”. The accompanying sketch shows a distant soldier leaning against a fence, totally unaware that he is within the crosshairs of an enemy assassin. Though it will be nearly 20 years before he returns to a subject of similar gravity as shown in the Sharpshooter, we see here an early suggestion of the artist’s fascination with a life and death predicament. Other Civil war paintings by Homer that are good and well known, but, for interest of time, we’ll close with discussion of just one more, Veteran in a New Field, 1865 Painted in 1865 after the end of the war. We see a farmer swinging a scythe; on the ground is his union cap and canteen. Image is rich in symbolism. The sythe depicted here was obsolete in 1865; it had been replaced by a multi-­‐bladed grain cradle (which Homer had originally included in the scene, then painted over in order to remind us of the timeless symbol of death reaping its harvest. The soldier turned farmer after the war reminds us of the legendary ancient Roman Cincinattus who modeled public service and a modest life as a farmer after his retirement. And we think, too, of the Old Testament scripture, “‘They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks”. Homer makes it explicit that the soldier is in a “new” field; it is not the battlefield in which he has served for over four years, nor is it a familiar field from his former life. The veteran is changed since his service in the war. The painting is certainly propagandistic to a degree with Homer urging a return to pre-­‐war normalcy after years of discord. Long Branch, New Jersey, 1869 Following the end of the war, Homer spent time in New York and Boston before settling in the coastal village of Gloucester. His subjects were generally ones of leisure and pleasure. 6 Croquet The New Novel At the Chalkboard, As you can gather from this handful of images, he loves to paint women and this model is a particular favorite up until 1877 when she disappears completely and without explanation. There has been speculation that the aloofness which characterized Homer later in life could have stemmed from a disappointing love affair, and there are historians who have tried to identify this woman and understand the nature of her relationship with Homer. Note that this image is a watercolor, a medium popular then and now with amateur artists. Homer will develop a proficiency in this medium which is unrivaled. Snapping the Whip, 1872 The innocence of childhood is another favorite theme of Homer in these years. These are children outside of the school house engaged in recreational activity. It would be fair to say that Homer is promoting public schools and democratization. The Boat Builders, 1873 Clear light, calm seas Breezing Up, 1873-­‐76 Dad’s Coming, 1873 Many of these images from the 1870’s are familiar to you. They have been often reproduced, and they help define the values that shaped America after the war. Among American artists, no one was more widely known or more popular in 1980 than Winslow Homer. On March 15, 1881 at the age of 45, Homer sailed for England for a three month trip which inexplicably lasted 20 months. There is no record as to why he went or why he extended his trip. Certainly he was aware that European art—both that in the museums and that being created in the day—was held in much greater esteem than anything in America, and many American artists chose to grow abroad to tour and study. England Cullercoats 7 After arriving in Liverpool, he soon left for London for a brief visit but by the end of March was 300 miles north in the fishing village of Cullercoats—1881 population of perhaps 2,000-­‐-­‐ located on the coast of the North Sea. It is not known why he chose Cullercoats, but nor can it be coincidence that, like Gloucester, Cullercoats was a small fishing community. Homer would come to discover, however, that the North Sea—especially in 1881-­‐1882—was far more treacherous than anything he had seen from the Atlantic Ocean at Gloucester, and his 18 month experience here was change his understanding of the dangers and the ravenous nature of the sea. The Herring Net, 1885 Herring and Halibut were the primary catches for the Cullercoats fishermen, and in this picture one can see two fishermen in a small dory hauling in a net full of herring. Note how one fisherman situates the bulk of his body weight outside the dory in order to counter balance the draught of fish. Take note of the size of the boat, and also the size of the waves. Mother ships drift in the distance. The oars stand crossed in the stern. Though there is no indication that he was an educated man, it seems likely that Homer would have known that the patron saint of fisherman, the apostle Andrew of Galilee, brother of Peter, was crucified on a X shaped cross, and these crossed oars would appear to bring to mind a saving saint. The Gale, 1883-­‐93 Even in Cullercoats, Homer wished to portray women—but what a change….a change in wardrobe, physique, countenance, color, activity, concentration, etc. He seems to have quickly come to sympathize with the plight of the fishwives…the women who bore the children, mended the nets, retrieved and cleaned the fish, and waited for their husbands and sons to return from perilous fishing voyages. In this image, The Gale, a mother patrols the shore with her child upon her back. She is no doubt scanning the horizon hoping to see a sign of her loved one’s return. Note the rocks at the beach and the pound of the surf. Compare the color palette to the works of the 1870’s. Look at the horizon line; the unsteady ocean is about to rise to the neck of this woman, and the North Sea wind blows with abandon into her face. One can only imagine that, should she spy the ship upon which her husband is returning, his safe landing in the face of wind and tide and rocks will yet be a dicey proposition. Promenade, 1880 Just 3 years earlier in 1880, Homer completed this Gloucester painting, and a comparison of the two is revealing. Note here the quality of the light on the beach, the tranquility of the ocean, and the beautiful color in the sky. See how the beautifully clad women calmly stroll the beach, and the open sky provides an immense panorama with sunset illuminating both the women and the Gloucester fisherman’s sails still far out in this tranquil sea. 8 These two images portray couples walking in solitude along the beach, but we would scarcely think to compare them had they not been created by the same artist. Wreck of Iron Crown On October 21, 1881, The sailing ship the iron Crown attempted to enter the Tynemouth Harbor at Cullercoats where Homer had lodging. The weather was miserable, and the landing was doomed from the beginning. From his shore-­‐side hotel room, Homer was able to observe both the wrecking of the ship in the surf and the valiant rescue of the crew and passengers. The weather was so bad that it took a full hour just to get the land-­‐based rescue boats into the sea and beyond the waves breaking in the surf. The image here shows a detail that is surprising and but historically accurate; following the rescue of the ship’s passengers, the land side life rescue brigade returned to shore and then realized that one human soul remained upon the iron Crown. Fighting wind and waves and the peril of the foundering ship as well, the rescue crew put oars to the water and returned once more to rescue the stranded individual. The wreck of the iron Crown was a significant event chronicled by major newspapers. However, what surprised me in my research was the number of North Sea shipping disasters that occurred during Homer’s twenty months and the fact that none of the Homer literature mentions these events. Scores of folks were lost in small boats, but those losses were only noted in the aggregate. For instance, The London Times of January 5, 1882 carried on page 4 the following notice under the heading “The Fishing Disasters” “The London Fish Trade Association having collected 534 pounds odd for the widows and orphans dependent upon the fisherman lost at sea during the terrible gale in October last belonging to Ramsgate, Great Yarmouth, Hull, Lowestoft, Grimsby, Scaborough, and Flamsborough, requested the Lord Mayor to remit to these localities the sums voted for the sufferers. In all 201 men and boys were lost. “ An 1883 article in the London Times carried a similar headline and story noting that, for this coastal area,” the widows, in all, numbered 141, and the orphans 300; in all 382 men and boys lost their lives”. The titles of his watercolors and oils indicate that Homer was walking the Tynemouth coast and the many villages where these fishing losses occurred. Though not necessarily impressed because he was an artist, records indicate that villagers in Cullercoats accepted him. There are reports that he was known to engage in billiards, occasional dancing, and “an inveterate smoker with a preference for a pipe”. He was said to enjoy listening and telling funny stories. Homer engaged in community at Cullercoats, and records of the storms and losses suffered along the coast in 1881-­‐1883 could not have escaped him. He knew the widows and orphans, and we have 9 already seen his penchant for wanting to sympathize with women and children. He had to have been deeply touched by the tragic losses encountered by so many families along the North Sea in the horrible 1881-­‐1883 season. In my opinion, these are the circumstances and experiences which changed his outlook, his artistic style, and his popularity at home. Though not an educated man, he had come to understand the raw power of nature—particularly the sea—and the fragility of human life. Distress Signal As did the town folk at Cullercoats, Homer became deeply interested in the life-­‐saving techniques and equipment available to the local rescue stations. From sketches made at Cullercoats, he prepared this oil painting many years later at Prout’s Neck. The Life Line This image shows one such rescue effort where a lifeline has been extended from the mast of a sinking boat to a secure place on shore. One can easily appreciate the dangers that are suggested in a rescue effort such as this. Girl with Red Stockings Though major maritime disasters made for great print in 1885 just as they would in 2015, I think it was the relentless nature of these ongoing and less publicized losses of fisherman that struck Homer; combined with the empathy he had always shown for women, these new experiences led him to a new view of reality and the harsh nature of human existence. In this painting, The Girl with Red Stockings, we see a young woman dropping her basket as she suddenly realizes that she is witnessing the break-­‐up of a ship foiled in its attempt to enter the Tynemouth harbor. Two women on shore Crane..awaiting rescue from the shore Kissing the Moon As we look at a few more Winslow homer paintings, it is just irresistibly tempting to reference lines form Stephen Crane’s works… 10 From “The Open Boat”…”in a ten foot dinghy one can get an idea of the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience, which is never at sea in a dinghy”, Blown Away Here we see two sailors who have lost control of their jib in high seas, and where they will be blown is known only to the wind and the tide. From the Open Boat, “viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would, doubtless, have been weirdly picturesque...it was probably splendid, it was probably glorious, this play of the free sea…” And, from Crane’s collected poems “War is Kind”, A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist!” “however,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.” “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and there are no temples.” Open boat A Swell of the Ocean From his poem, “A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar”, A man adrift on a slim spar A horizon smaller than the rim of a bottle Tented waves rearing lashy dark points The near whine of froth in circles God is cold. The Ship’s Boat, 1883 From Crane’s short story, one recalls the moment when the crew’s lifeboat is capsized and they all swim for shore. The correspondent, Crane is frustrated by his futile attempts to overcome the strength of the tide when the safety of the shore is so close at hand; “If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—If I am going to be drowned, why in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand 11 and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble on the sacred cheese of life?” Homer left us pictures. Stephen Crane left us words. Word’s are easier for us to decipher. When words and pictures match as well as they do with Homer and Crane, one imagines that these two artists are conveying similar messages. In 1859, Charles Darwin published Origin of Species and his controversial theory of natural selection. It took awhile for mainstream Europe and America to digest Darwin’s theories, and, even then (and even now) many of us got it wrong. In 1882 the Englishman Herbert Spencer came to America on a stupendously popular speaking tour in which he (wrongly) paraphrased Darwin’s theories as testimony to “the survival of the fittest”. Crowds gathered to hear him. Spencer’s lectures espoused the virtues not only of strength and adaptability, but also of order and stability and continued progress. His talks were well attended and widely publicized, including publicity in Harper’s Weekly, Homer’s long-­‐time client. Evolution was a fascinating topic, and Spencer’s audiences were enthused to hear about the prospects for the enhancement of quality of life and human potential. It makes perfect sense that Spencer’s audience—especially those at the top of the food chain—would subscribe to Spencer’s views regarding the survival of the fittest. About this time John Rockefeller will find himself led to teach a Sunday School class where he will explain that his extraordinary success with Standard oil was “merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.” In 1889, Andrew Carnegie will publish an essay entitled “The Gospel of Wealth” in which he will offer a similar explanation for his good fortune. Natural selection, of course, was completely misunderstood by Spencer and Rockefeller and Carnegie and by many of us today. Darwin understood that life forms adapt to their environments in many ways, and certain chance combinations or adaptations prove durable. These adaptations are not steps toward perfection or even improvement; they are simply adaptations that allow a random few to survive. A spotted flounder will not be faster or stronger than one without spots, but, when resting on the ocean bottom, he will be less visible to predators. Darwin’s findings led him to believe that the real law of nature uncovered by his theory of evolution was that living forms change because they would otherwise be destroyed. God, Darwin felt, could not have created a world so cruel. Therefore, there could be no God. Thomas Henry Huxley wrote in 1876 that teleology had “received its deathblow at Mr. Darwin’s hands.” 12 William James followed in The Varieties of Religious Experience “We must bid a definitive good-­‐bye to dogmatic theology…the scale of evil actually in sight defies all human tolerance…A God who can relish such superfluities of horror is no God for human beings to appeal to.” From Crane’s The Black Riders of 1895, one reads God fashioned the ship of the world carefully. With the infinite skill of an all-­‐master Made he the hull and the sails, Held He the rudder Ready for adjustment. Erect stood He, scanning his work proudly. Then—at fateful time—a wrong called, And God turned, heeding. Lo, the ship, at this opportunity, slipped slyly, Making cunning noiseless travel down the ways. So that, forever rudderless, it went upon the seas Going ridiculous voyages, Making quaint progress, Turning as with serious purpose Before stupid winds. And there were many in the sky Who laughed at this thing. The Artist’s Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894 At Prout’s Neck in the 1890’s Homer continues to paint. The Sea He simplifies and in many cases eliminates the human figure from his compositions. But, even though these images are limited to rocks and waves and sky, they seem to be more than seascapes; there is a tremendous gravitas in a work like this and it comes from an artists who has made it his life’s work to study and to meditate upon the power of Nature. It is almost as if he has personified these waves and endowed them with both power and deep secrets. 13 West Point, Prout’s Neck, 1900 He did not completely abandon color in his palette, and we’ll close with a few images that prove that out. I’m pleased to tell you that critics warmed to his paintings in the 1890’s and he actually received extraordinary praise for his seascapes. At an 1891 exhibition the art critic Alfred Trumble wrote in Collector, “To say that Mr. Winslow Homer exhibits at Reichard & Company’s galleries the four most complete and powerful pictures he has painted is to do them but half justice. They are, in their way, the four most powerful pictures that any man of our generation and people has painted.” The Fox Hunt, 1893 The Fox Hunt of 1893 was purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts, Homer’s first museum purchase. It is a beautiful painting with a refreshing break from the blue/gray palette we have been reviewing this morning. The subject is interesting, and it takes a moment to realize what is happening here. The coast has been blanketed by a very heavy snowfall. A red fox trudges through the deep snow, no doubt hunting for some rodent or field bird. Ironically though, while all of the fox’s typical food sources are hidden, the fox himself—red coat against a white ground—has attracted the attention of a ravenous flock of crows. The dried red berries on these branches presage the drops of blood which will soon stain the snow once the crows have attacked. This is nature turned on its head as the hunter fox becomes the hunted due to the unnatural environmental circumstances. There is no reason to think that Homer read the writings of Charles Darwin. Certainly there was no Darwinian literature in the artist’s library and Homer was not a highly educated man. However, he was a keen observer of nature, and I think he well understood everything that Darwin had to say about the fragility of life and the role of Chance. Right and Left If you have not seen this painting before, you might enjoy taking a moment to decipher it your self. One duck takes flight while the other appears to plunge—lifelessly toward the ocean. There is no reason to imagine that these ducks would not being flying in tandem. After a moment, your eye can make out a spot of red in the background, and then a boat and a hunter materialize. It is clear that a shotgun has fired and one bird has fallen. Chance has allowed one bird to fly to safety and claimed the life of another. 14 Adirondacks Homer will continue to live alone and to paint until his death in 1910. Though there are records of his correspondence with family and a few friends, he lives a life of solitude where he is constantly observing nature. His work with water color is astounding and leads many to reconsider the possibilities of the medium. Frog and Fish Conclusion Stephen Crane and Winslow Homer were men of different temperament, education, and age but, each in their distinct mediums they shared a common outlook and understanding of humankind’s standing in a post Darwinian world. During a period in the 1880’s and 90’s, one with a brush and the other with a pen, these two gentlemen drew upon their deeply personal experiences with tragedy at sea and they sought to vividly and realistically depict the world about them. Homer and Crane lived in a generation which was recovering from, and still trying to understand, the repercussions of the Civil War. As if the war was not enough, Science—Darwin—hit that same generation with a body blow that led many to reassess preconceived notions regarding progress, purpose, teleology, and religion. Homer and Crane were among the first to portray men (and women) on the edge of this new frontier. His keen observational skills allowed Homer to faithfully render the power and fury of nature, but also left us images of her astonishing beauty . Clearly he was mesmerized by the wonders of the outdoors, be it on the coast or in the wilderness of the Adirondacks. I think that the little bit of information we have about his life experiences goes a long way toward infusing his pictures with richer meaning. I continue to enjoy looking at them, and I hope that you have seen some today that you enjoyed as well. Thank you for your attention this afternoon. If you have any questions I’d be glad to try to address them; otherwise, see you at the toga party at Mr. Peebles house.