Winslow Homer (1836-1890) was an American landscape painter and printmaker.

Early Life

He was born the middle child of his parents’ three children, on 24 February 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States. While he enjoyed his childhood, he was showing his inclination toward art and painting. The family moved to the nearby rural town of Cambridge when Homer was 6 years old. Though Homer grew up in rural Cambridge, he would sometime later grow up to be one of the most renowned painters that the United States of America had ever seen and own a studio of his own on 10th street in New York.

Homer’s mother, who was an amateur watercolorist, noticed the early signs of artistic talent in Homer. She taught her son the basics of her craft and encouraged him to follow his destiny to become a famous painter. His father was described as a failed businessman and was eccentric in behavior and appearance. However, he supported his son’s artistic ambitions to the hilt and encouraged him by buying a complete set of lithographic tools needed for a young draughtsman for his self-help. He also arranged young Homer’s apprenticeship with one of his acquaintances, John H Bufford, a prominent commercial lithographer in Boston, when Homer was 19 years of age. In the beginning, his work involved copying the designs of other artists. Within a few years, he started submitting his own drawings for publication.

Freelance Illustrator

At the end of his apprenticeship in 1857, Homer decided never to work under and for anyone again. He opened his own studio in Boston to start a freelance career as a commercial illustrator. After having created works for some magazines in Boston and New York, Homer decided to become a full-fledged painter. In 1859, Homer moved to New York which was by then a major center of publishing and artistic activity. He enrolled at the National Academy of Design and took lessons from some famous artists such as Frederick Rondel who taught him how to handle his brush and set his palette, etc.

He was later hired by Harper’s weekly to illustrate Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address and thereafter, he continued with that Weekly until Civil War started a month later. Homer was one of the topmost painters of 19th century America and was famous for painting marine subjects. Drawing, wood engraving, oil painting, and watercolor painting were the other accredited traits that launched him to be one of the world’s renowned painters. He is also described as a self-taught master who honed his painting skill, particularly, depicting nature and the sea.

Civil War Painter

Winslow Homer spent nearly four years of his career as a painter portraying the conflicts of the US civil war. He was sent to the frontlines of the war in Virginia not as a soldier but as a combat correspondent for the new illustrated journal, Harper’s Weekly. Homer was traveling at the frontlines of the battlefield and was living with the soldiers in their makeshift tents at night. Making use of his expertise in engravings, Homer drew images of both the chaotic battle scenes and the peaceful moments of soldiers’ everyday lives.

The Bright Side (1866) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Young Soldier, Sketch of a Soldier Giving Water to a Wounded Companion (ca.1864) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Rainy Day in Camp, 1871, Winslow Homer, American – Stretched Canvas

Later on, Homer translated these drawings of war into a series of oil paintings which helped the public to get an insight into the horrors of battle and the lives of the soldiers in the makeshift camps at the war front. As the war prolonged, he started concentrating on painting more and more. In 1865, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. His painting ‘Prisoners From the Front (1866)’ received considerable appreciation when it was exhibited at the National Academy. ‘The Veteran in a New Field’ is another of Homer’s best paintings depicting war and its travails that present the public an opportunity for visualization and understanding of the war’s impact and meaning.

Traveler and painter

In much of the 1860s and 1870s, Homer was living in New York City and was living mainly by designing magazine illustrations. Though his reputation and popularity as a painter saw a noticeable increase during this period in New York, he was finding his favorite subjects for painting in the seaside resorts in the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, rural New York State, and the White Mountains of New Hamshire. His travel to Paris and the 10-month-long stay in the French countryside helped Homer share the subject interest and the fascination of the French avant-garde. He also noticed the desire of the French painters to incorporate into their works outdoor lights, flat and simple forms, and free brush works.

Saco Bay (1896) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas 

Undertow (1886) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

The Cotton Pickers (1876) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Sleigh Ride (ca. 1890–1895) by Winslow Homer. Original from The Clark Art Institute – Stretched Canvas

Shepherdess of Houghton Farm (1878) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Man with a Knapsack (1873) by Winslow Homer. Original from The Smithsonian – Stretched Canvas

Sailing off Gloucester (ca.1880) by Winslow Homer: Stretched Canvas

Salt Kettle, Bermuda (1899) by Winslow Homer: Stretched Canvas

Schooner–Nassau (ca. 1888–1889) by Winslow Homer: Stretched Canvas

Besides his mastery of oil paint, Home began to create paintings in watercolors. When he tasted success in this field, he gave up his job as a freelance illustrator in the mid-1870s. In 1881, he traveled to England on his second final trip abroad and settled down briefly, from the spring of 1881 till Nov 1882, in a village near Tynemouth called Cullercoats on the North Sea coast. Watching the strenuous and courageous lives of the fishermen and women, he painted pictures showing the menfolk braving the ravages of the sea while catching fish and women hauling and cleaning the day’s catch onshore, mending nets, and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their men at sea. When Homer returned to New York after his sojourn on the North Sea coast, it is said that his art of painting had greatly changed.

Back Home

In 1883, Homer moved from New York to Prouts Neck, Maine, a peninsula ten miles south of Portland. He produced some extremely good watercolor paintings depicting, mainly, the subjects around the transient human life and man’s struggle against the timeless forces of nature. Homer’s later paintings concentrate, mainly, on the beauty of the sea and the drama that unfolds while the man fights for survival against its power.

The boys in the Breezing up (A Fair Wind), 1873-76, and the fishermen in the Fog Warning depict momentary human triumph in their fight against the invincible force of nature. But at the same time, the man painted in The Gulf Stream (1899) as lying on the deck of a sailboat that is completely destroyed by the hurricane and sharks encircling his boat shows man’s helplessness against the forces of nature. The Gulf Stream is rated as the painting that marked the apex of Homer’s artistic career.

Gulf Stream and After the hurricane, Bahamas

Such trepidation at the hands of nature can be seen in another similar painting to the Gulf Stream – “After the hurricane, Bahamas”. Both the “Gulf Stream” and this painting are similar in many ways. The same model appears to have been used in both paintings. The after-effects of the fury of nature and the helplessness of men in the face of such adversity are clearly seen in both paintings. The dark and light blue waves of the ocean make the white of the boat stand out. In the “After the hurricane, Bahamas” artwork, we see a man lying dissolute on the beach, visibly tired and beaten by the merciless sea which appears to have destroyed his boat. He appears thankful to be alive in his current situation in the midst of the pearly white of the beach separated by the bright blue of the ocean. Heavy browns of the weeds are scattered in the painting to provide variety in tones and color.

Study for The Gulf Stream (ca. 1898–1899) by Winslow Homer – Premium Vertical Framed Poster

The Eagle’s Nest (1902) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Coast of Maine (1893) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Breaking Storm, Coast of Maine (1894) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Fishing Boats, Key West (1903) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

After the Hurricane, Bahamas (1899) by Winslow Homer – Stretched Canvas

Some of their masterpieces of Homer are, 1) Daydreaming, 2) Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 3) Moonlight, 4 ) A Wall, Nassau, 5) Fishing Boats, Key West, 6) The Gulf Stream, 7) A Basket of Clams, 8) Glass Windows, Bahamas, 9) Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda, 10) Waiting for Dad, 11) The Fog Warning, 12) The Herring Net, 13) Sailing the Catboat, 14) Dogs in a Boat, 15) Boy Fishing, 16) A summer Night, 17) The Veteran in a New Field, 18) A Garden in Nassau, 19) Lost on the Grand Banks, 20) Coconut Palms, Key West, 21) St. John’s River, Florida, 22) A Good Pool- Saguenay River, 23) West Point, Prouts Neck, 24) Eight Bells 25) Undertow.

• Well known paintings
• Billionaire Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates paid a record price of more than $30 million for Winslow Homer’s ‘Lost on the Grand Banks'(1885). The amount paid to this painting was reported to be the highest price for an American painting at that time. This painting was made by Homer during his nearly 2-year long stay in a village on the North Sea Coast. It depicts the hard lives of North Atlantic fishermen.
• Homer’s Northeaster (1895-1901)
• The marine theme was one of Homer’s favorite subjects of painting. A few of such paintings that he made during his stay in Maine are, The Fog Warning, Breezing up, Northeaster, etc. The subject of his painting ‘Northeaster; is a sea storm of demonic proportions lasting for relatively longer durations on the Maine coast. Homer reduced this most vicious natural phenomenon into his canvasses by painting it in 1895. Though the painting was highly appreciated and well-received, Homer again reworked on it in 1901 to lend it further finesse and powerful visual effect. The painting shows two men in weather gear crouching behind the rocky shield braving the incessant columns of spray jetting out from the vicious-looking waves.
• Winslow Homer died aged 74 on 29th September 1910 in his house in Prouts Neck, Maine, US. Though some believe that there had been an unhappy love affair in his life, he did not marry. He lived alone and seemed to prefer a solitary life. He never disclosed the reasons for his solitude and withdrawal from the glare of society and civilization.