Winslow Homer
1836-1910
Realism
For this presentation you will need:
(Available reproductions and supplemental prints are in the vertical art storage rack to the right of the
cabinet.)
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Featured artwork: Breezing Up (1876) and Snap the Whip (1872)
Supplemental artwork: Sunset Saco Bay (1896), Gulf Stream (1899), West Point, Prout’s
Neck (1905), The Fog Warning (1885), The Adirondack Guide (1894), The Gale (1893),
Homosassa River (1904), Palm Tree, Nassau (1898)
Elements of Art Board
In the black cabinet you will find a white binder with a copy of the current presentation and some
additional supporting materials in the front pocket of the binder.
Updated April 20, 2015
2 Winslow Homer
Personal Information Name:
Nationality:
Born:
Died:
Lived:
Winslow Homer
American
February 24, 1836 in Boston
1910 in Prout's Neck, Maine
At age 6 moved to Cambridge on the outskirts of Boston, which was then, a
very rural community. He enjoyed the outdoors with brothers Charles and
Arthur. After apprenticing in Boston, moved to New York City, traveled to
Europe and eventually settled on the remote and rocky coast of Maine.
Family:
Although he remained a bachelor all of his life; some even characterized
him as a recluse, Winslow Homer was very close to his parents and
brothers' families. He took care of his father in his last years He also
enjoyed the company of the working people he lived near in Maine.
Professional Information
Type of artist:
American Naturalist Painter – master of etchings, oils and watercolor. He
pioneered Realism in America. His career lasted 50 years and produced some
2000 known works.
Style/Technique:
Homer characterized figures in his paintings less by facial expression or any
other use of sharp detail, instead by their total appearance: shape, pose,
movement, weight and physical stresses. Homer often avoided tiny detail,
instead patterned broadly, seeking effect through large masses. He kept his
pictures shallow, the action simple and in the foreground.
Homer's most remembered works are of stormy seas, wind tossed palm trees,
and resourceful fishermen. These pictures were usually painted in dark colors.
However, Homer often added bright touches to suggest moving sunlight or the
sparkling whitecaps of breaking waves.
Artist Background
Winslow Homer was born in 1836 in Boston and at the age of 6 moved to Cambridge,
Massachusetts, which was then a rural village. He and his two brothers, Charles and Arthur,
explored nearby fields and woods and fished in the streams and ponds of their neighborhood. His
father encouraged him in his desire to be an artist, which contrasted with conventional thinking
of the Victorian era in which they lived. His father's attitude paired with his mother's skill as a
painter and her love of art, made the household a place for creative thinking. He spent his early
years sketching with no formal academic training.
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Art in the Classroom
3 Winslow Homer
In light of his remarkable amateur talents at drawing, he apprenticed as a lithographer and in a
Boston print shop from 1855-1857. He then moved to New York City as a freelance illustrator for
Harper 's Weekly and other magazines. Harper 's assigned him to cover President Lincoln's
Inauguration, then the Civil War. His illustrations were prepared for printing by a method known
as wood engraving. During these years, he began to experiment with watercolors and oils. He
transforn1ed his Civil War sketches into a series of oil paintings, which established him as a major
American artist. His picture Prisoners from the Front brought the artist to a new position of
prominence and prestige. However, when Homer began his career as an independent artist, he
offered two Civil War oils for sale, but there were no takers. So Homer's brother Charles secretly
bought both, reportedly paying a modest sum and hiding them so that Winslow would keep
painting. A few years later Winslow discovered his brother's deception and refused to speak to
him for weeks. By then, though, the young artist was on his way. His works were selling steadily.
In 1866 he spent a year in France, but although his interest in painting of natural light ran parallel
to that of the early impressionists, he was not directly influenced by the popular Impressionist
painters of the day.
A stay in England from 1881-1882, during which Homer lived in a fishing village, led to a
permanent change in his subject matter. Thereafter, he concentrated on large-scale scenes of
nature, particularly scenes of the sea, of its fishermen, and their families.
When Homer's skill and fame increased, he gave up his work as an illustrator and devoted all of his
time to painting in oils and watercolors. He spent his summers in Maine and winters in Florida or
the Bahamas. Homer never lived far from the sea which he loved.
Homer has been described as "the boy who never really grew up." He was known to play with
slingshots and scribble on walls when he was in his 50's. Homer was also a bundle of contradictions.
A blunt, practical loner, he rebuffed inquiries about his personal life. But his small circle of friends
and family knew him as generous and kind, with a dry Yankee wit and keen interest in people that
still shine through his finest work.
In his later life, Homer developed a strong individual style as a mariner painter. Homer's great
understanding of nature enabled him to seek out a life many people only dreamed about. The last
thirty years of his life were spent in the deep quiet solitude on the Maine Coast at Prout's Neck. It
was there that he died on September 29, 1910.
Today, there is great interest in Homer's work. "Home Sweet Home," a Civil War oil, sold for 2.64
million dollars in 1997 to the National Gallery of Art. That record was shattered in 1998 when
Microsoft's Bill Gates paid over 30 million dollars for "Lost on the Grand Banks".
The "Birth of Realism" followed the Romantic movement as exponents of the visual arts sought to
depict the world in a more literal way. Focus shifted away from idealism to a more realistic rendering
of nature, social relationships, and the characteristics of the individual, society, and the nation at
large. Realistic art was popping up everywhere around the world and this new realism assumed
various forms in the different countries where it took root. The realism that developed in the US was
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Art in the Classroom
4 Winslow Homer
quite distinct from that seen in Europe. While many American artists embraced the concrete and the
tangible in their paintings, they also created a strong sense of idealism.
Homer pioneered Realism in America. He has been quoted as saying "When I have selected the thing
carefully, I paint it exactly as it appears." To catch the look of rough seas, he posed one of his
neighbors, Henry Lee, in oilskins for hours on a cold day, in a boat propped on shore at a steep angle.
Homer doused him with a bucket of water, apparently without warning, to complete the effect. Such
attention to reality was at odds with artistic convention in Homer's time.
Homer's work, was far broader in range than his contemporaries, the Impressionists. His work was
not merely visual but intellectual and spiritual as well, expressive of all the senses. His paintings
have an element of poetry and sadness. He had a passion for accuracy in the observation of nature.
Homer selected parts of his pictures with great care. Homer's great understanding of nature enabled
him to place each part carefully to contribute to the rhythm and mood of the work of art.
Horner did not study the works of other artists. He believed that a man who wished to be an artist
must not look at other artist's work and he remained solitary, refusing to have anything to do with
European art. Instead, he studied people at work and enjoying sports. He studied the beauty of the
countryside and open sea. He was a realistic painter, painting things exactly as he saw them.
Homer set up a studio on the rocky coast in Maine, where he began his series of watercolors of the
sea and its people. Finally, in his solitude, he lost interest in painting people and confirmed himself
almost entirely to the "lonely sea and the sky". His watercolors are so powerful that it is difficult to
believe that Homer himself was a small, quiet and reserved gentleman. His view of nature was
severe and even in the scenes of tropical waters, brilliant in color, indicative of his belief that man
himself is nothing in comparison to the vastness and power of the ocean.
Featured Artwork
Breezing Up (1876)
(Still life, oil on canvas)
"Breezing Up" was one of Homer's most
beloved oil paintings. Completed during the
centennial year of the United States in
1876, the work reflects the nation's mood-a
burst of exuberance following the turmoil of
the Civil War.
Homer began the canvas in New York in
1873, after he had visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he first worked in watercolor. He used the
sketches made there for the oil painting, which he worked on over three years. Infrared reflectography
has revealed the many changes he made to the composition during this time, including the removal of a
fourth boy near the mast and a second schooner in the distance. At one point the adult held both the
North Stratfield School
Art in the Classroom
Winslow Homer
5 sheet and the tiller, a position initially adapted from an earlier oil painting. The painting's message is
positive; despite the choppy waves, the boaters look relaxed. The anchor that replaced the boy in the
bow was understood to symbolize hope. The boy holding the tiller looks forward to the horizon, a
statement of optimism about his future and that of the young United States.
The finished work indicates that the significant influence of Japanese art on Western painters in the
19th century also touched Homer, particularly in the compositional balance between the left (active)
and right (sparse) halves. Homer had visited France in 1866 and 1867, and the influence of marine
scenes by the French painters Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet is apparent as well. Today, Breezing Up is considered an iconic American painting, and among Homer's finest. The
National Gallery of Art purchased the work in 1943, described by the institution's web site as "one of
the best-known and most beloved artistic images of life in nineteenth-century America."
Show: Poster of Breezing Up
Ask:
What is a seascape? How it is different from a landscape?
Let's create a story about this painting. What do you think the characters have been talking
about? Where are they going? Where have they been? What do they see? Hear? Feel? Smell? Snap the Whip (1872)
(Landscape, Oil on Canvas)
Winslow Homer's most beloved and popular
painting was Snap the Whip, created with oil
on canvas in 1872. Children embodied
innocence and the promise of America's future
and were depicted by many artists and writers
during the 1870s. Here Homer reminisces
about rural simplicity and reflects on the
challenges of the complex post Civil War
world. 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. The boys' bare feet signal childhood's freedom but
their suspenders are associated with manhood's responsibilities. Observed from right to left, Homer's
boys hang on to one another, strain to stay connected, run in perfect harmony, and fall away, enacting
all the possible scenarios for men after the Civil War. Art in the Classroom
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Winslow Homer
6 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.
Show: Poster of Snap the Whip
Ask: Do Homer's paintings look real? (Yes, Homer is known as a realistic painter. He expressed
his attitude toward his art in the words, "When I have selected the thing carefully, I paint it
exactly as it appears." At this point, you may want to discuss the different between
realistically painting a still-life or portrait verses realistically painting an action painting. Note
that while painting a still-life or portrait the object of the painting remains still and the artist
is not required to rush in any way. To realistically capture an action it requires the artist to
visually freeze-­‐ frame the action. Have children think about stopping the ocean for a second to
paint it... Perhaps do the suggested
activity at this point.)
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How do you like this painting?
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When does this painting take place? (The clothing, the little red schoolhouse, the game being
played lead us to believe it is an old painting. It gives us a nostalgic feeling today. This
painting was painted in 1872, only a few years before Mark Twain wrote "The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer.")
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Let's make up a story about this painting. What are the children experiencing? How do they
feel about one another? What are they saying? Hearing? Feeling?
Other Noted Artwork
The Gale (1893)
(oil on canvas)
Early in his career, in the 1870s, Homer was widely
admired for depictions of the Civil War and for idyllic
scenes of rural America. The tenor of his work changed
decisively, however, during a two-year stay (1881-83) in
the English village of Tynemouth on the coast of the North Sea. In both watercolor and oil Homer now
focused on the fisherfolk who braved the dangerous sea to earn their spare livelihood. The subject of a
robust fisherwoman facing the elements with her baby strapped to her back fits squarely within this
theme of man's struggle against natural forces.
The present work was first painted in Tynemouth and exhibited in 1883 as The Coming Away of the
Gale at the National Academy of Design in New York City. Probably because the original composition
incurred unfavorable criticism, Homer kept it for nearly a decade at his studio in Prout's Neck, Maine,
before reworking the canvas. By the time The Gale was shown at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago,
receiving high acclaim, Homer's reputation as one of America's foremost artists was secure.
Art in the Classroom
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7 Winslow Homer
Gulf Stream (1899)
(oil on canvas)
After about 1900 inspiration came less frequently to Homer. He reworked older paintings almost as much as he painted new ones. But as he wrote to his patron and dealer Thomas B. Clarke in 1901,"Do not think that I have stopped painting,. At any moment I am liable to paint a good picture." And he was absolutely right. His late subject pictures, beginning with Gulf Stream of 1899, tended also to be summary and synoptic with an understanding of a lifetime's experiences, deepened by adversity and intimations of mortality, laced with memories and (re)arranged by reflection. Homer painted Gulf Stream when he was sixty-­‐three years old, in the year following the death of his father, his one surviving parent, and in the last year of the century -­‐ a confluence of circumstances, despite Homer's advanced age, that might all too easily have caused him to feel, as never before, alone, abandoned, and mortally vulnerable. The painting addressed Homer's feelings of trouble and temptation, the approaching inevitability of life's end. Homer visited Nassau and Florida from December 1898 to February 1899. That visit, with the passage through the Gulf Stream that it required, probably triggered the painting. But it was not its source -­‐ only its stimulus. Emotionally and artistically, Gulf Stream was rooted far more deeply within Homer himself and in his past. West Point, Prout’s Neck (1905)
(oil on canvas)
If the folk saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight . . ."
is true, then West Point, Prout's Neck is a picture about
joy. Homer painted the scene near his Maine studio,
looking to the southwest across Saco Bay to Old
Orchard Beach. Not only the place but the effect was a
real one. Homer wrote of it to his dealer: "The picture is
painted fifteen minutes after sunset - not one minute
before - as up to that minute the clouds over the sun would have their edges lighted a brilliant glow of
color - but now the sun has got beyond their immediate range and they are in shadow. The light is
from the sky in this picture. You can see that it took many days of careful observation to get this,
(with a high sea and the tide just right)." He made this specificity of moment clear by the emphasis he
gave to the spume that crests in the foreground.
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Winslow Homer
8 Sunset, Saco Bay (1872)
(oil on canvas)
Saco Bay or Sunset, Saco Bay is the title of a painting by
Winslow Homer, showing a view of the bay from
Checkley Point on the southwestern side of Prouts Neck.
According to Winslow he worked on it for about 10
years, finishing only 3 days before shipping it for
exhibition. It was first exhibited in 1897 at the Society
of American Artists in New York City. The painting is
now at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in
Massachusetts.
Homer painted this sunset over Saco Bay in Maine from a spot near his studio. Two women, carrying
fishing nets and lobster traps, seem as solid and enduring as the rocks beneath their feet. They were
among the last figures Homer included in his paintings, as he increasingly turned his attention to the
sea. One contemporary reviewer criticized the scene’s “unnatural strawberry sky,” but the artist
considered it one of his best works.
The Fog Warning (1885)
(oil on canvas)
Winslow Homer had always been profoundly inspired
by the sea. In 1882, after spending over a year and a
half in England where he had made numerous
paintings of the fishing community in Cullercoats on
the North Sea, Homer returned to America and
established his studio at Prout's Neck, Maine, where he
family made his summer home. Living and painting at
this point where sea meets land, Homer confronted some of the great themes of man and nature. As he
had done in England, Homer continued to depict fishermen at their daily work, drawing numerous
small sketches and completing large canvas. Of these, The Fog Warning is one of the most celebrated.
During the summer of 1884, Homer traveled to Cape Ann, Massachusetts, to observe and draw the
Gloucester fishing fleet. Sketching in charcoal while sailing on board the schooners, he would later
combine the drawing for larger compositions in oil. Perhaps influenced by the fishermen he met or the
stories he heard while sailing with them, Homer repeatedly sketched and painted the theme of work and
isolation from different viewpoints, reinforcing the solitary aspects of the fisherman's lot. The Fog Warning shows a single fisherman rowing a dory with two or more large halibut weighting
down the stern; the man has paused in his rowing as the boat crests a wave, and he looks off in the
direction of a large sailing vessel on lower portion of the sky, a "long and ominous cloud", as it was
called by one reviewer. The real name is 'The Fog Warning." represents what was an all too common peril, namely the
"constant danger, at all seasons of the year, of fishermen, while out in boats, losing sight of the
vessels." Although the mother ship would commence sounding a horn as soon as an approaching fog
was spotted, the widely scattered fleet of dories could easily and rapidly become enveloped in the mists
Art in the Classroom
North Stratfield School
Winslow Homer
9 before reaching safety. The Fog Warning, a distilled image of that intense moment when the fisherman
must decide on a new course to row if he has any chance of reaching the ship, is one of Homer's most
successful epics of the sea. The Fog Warning recalls harvest themes through the large halibut displayed in the bottom of the dory.
The thrust of The Fog Warning is ambivalent: the sea is both provider and adversary. The fisherman,
isolated against the fog bank, is caught in an ancient struggle.
The Adirondack Guide (1894)
(watercolor over graphite pencil on paper)
In the mid 1880s, Homer began traveling south to Florida,
Cuba, and the Bahamas where he spent time expanding his
watercolor technique. Additionally, Homer found
inspiration in a number of summer trips to the North
Woods Club, near the hamlet of Minerva, New York in
the Adirondack Mountains. It was on these fishing
vacations that he experimented freely with the watercolor
medium, producing works of the utmost vigor and subtlety,
hymns to solitude, nature, and to outdoor life.
Homosassa River (1904)
(Watercolor with additions of gum over graphite on cream, moderately thick,
moderately textured wove paper)
Winslow Homer was and still is considered one of the greatest masters of
watercolor for his intuitive understanding of this liquid medium. He
produced a large body of works in watercolor (about double the number of
oil paintings), many of which remain unrivaled in their expressive power. In
this picture of remote fishing grounds in Florida, he captured the tropical
landscape on an overcast day with a complex combination of freely brushed,
liquid washes and dry strokes of paint (to articulate palm fronds); he scraped
into the paper to create the white curve of the angler’s line.
North Stratfield School
Art in the Classroom
10 Winslow Homer
Palm Tree, Nassau (1898)
(Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper)
In 1884, Homer received a commission from Century Magazine to
illustrate an article called “A Midwinter Resort” about Nassau, the port
city of the Bahamas. When Homer went to the Bahamas later that year,
there were only about 150 visitors at the height of the vacation season.
Nassau was just beginning to develop a reputation as a destination for
those suffering from illnesses made worse by the cold winters of the
Northeast United States.
During the two months he stayed on the island, Homer painted more than
thirty watercolors of a variety of subjects, including island architecture,
sponge and coral fishing, fruit trees, and the unusual features of the
landscape.
Discussing the Art
Show the Elements of Art board.
Line
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What shows movement? What types oflines are used? (Movement is depicted by the angle of
the boat and the movement of the water. Look for the diagonal lines, swirls, curves, twists, etc.
The boat has a lot of diagonal lines; the ocean and clouds have round swirls.)
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How fast do you think the boat is going? (The angle of the boat suggests it is moving swiftly.
However, the boys look so relaxed-and no one is using the oar...)
Shape
• A shape is a line that encloses itself. Use a pipe cleaner or draw the shapes in a piece of paper
to demonstrate what happens when two ends of a line meet. A shape is created. Name some
shapes (square, circle, ova cube, rectangle, cylinder, semicircle, etc) that are in the paintings.
• How did Homer create a sense of depth? (The second boat is very small. By painting it small he
made it look like it is far off in the distance.)
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What is the center of the interest-the focal point? (The people in the boat are the focal point.
They are located in the center of the painting.)
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What shapes do you see? (Rectangles, circles, squares.)
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Art in the Classroom
11 Winslow Homer
Color
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What colors did Homer use? Why do you think he used these colors? (The colors are cold
colors--mostly dark greens and blues. The dark blue of the water makes you feel the coldness.
The use of whites in the sky lets you know it was a nice cloudy day.)
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What season do you think it is? (We are not sure. Looking at color alone-the green ground and
trees and flowers suggest spring or summer. Based on clothing, however, it could be autumn.
The children are wearing long pants, long-sleeve shirts and jackets, but are barefoot.)
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How does Homer use color to draw the audience in? (Homer uses bright colors in the
foreground, bright white as a focal point, and a bright red in the background.)
Texture
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Does the painting have detail or does it just give the impression of something? (Detail. Examine
the detail of the rope on the sail.)
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What else in the painting depicts texture? (The clouds and water.)
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What kinds of textures are depicted in this painting? (The children's clothing looks like
corduroy and linen. The schoolhouse is old clapboard. The grass has a fuzzy texture to it.)
Light
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What kind of light is depicted? (Natural)
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What is the weather like? What is the time of day? (The day is cloudy. It looks like it is
late in the day. It seems the sun is setting off to the right.)
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Where is the light coming from? (The sun seems to be shining off to the left. The sun is
illuminating the children's faces. Home also uses shadows to illustrate the presence of the
sun.)
Space
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How does Homer create a sense of depth? (Homer uses shadows to create a sense of depth.
Also the little red schoolhouse in the back gives us a sense of the field in the foreground.)
Activities
•
Try to recreate the scene from the painting. Have half the class be the subjects and the other half
move them, gently, into place. Have the children hold their positions while you talk about line,
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Art in the Classroom
12 Winslow Homer
space, etc. Discuss how hard it must have been to paint this moment in time. Then, invite
children to switch roles.
•
Have the children move around and then call out "freeze." See how their positions would give
an artist a starting point to try and recreate certain movements.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer
http://www.winslowhomer.org/
http://www.winslowhomer.org/gulf-stream.jsp#prettyPhoto
http://www.winslowhomer.org/breezing-up.jsp
http://www.winslowhomer.org/west-point-prouts-neck.jsp
http://www.winslowhomer.org/the-fog-warning.jsp
http://www.winslowhomer.org/snap-the-whip.jsp
http://19thcenturyusapaint.blogspot.com/2012/11/winslow-homer-ctd.html
http://www.worcesterart.org/collection/American/1916.48.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saco_Bay_%28Maine%29
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/the-adirondack-guide-4997
http://www.winslow-homer.com/the-complete-works.html
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/2750/Homosassa_River
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collectiononline/search/11131?=&imgno=0&tabname=online-resources
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/lessons-activities/ecology/homer-bahamas.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulf_Stream_%28painting%29
http://www.clarkart.edu/Collection/7777
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/the-fog-warning-31042
http://www.nga.gov/feature/homer/homerchron01.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/05/us/sale-of-homer-seascape-sets-record.html
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