Portrait of Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer Painting Reproductions 3 of 4

1836-1910

American Realist Painter

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 - September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter, most famous for his marines. Largely self-taught, he is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America, and a preeminent figure in American art.
Early life
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Homer was apprenticed to a Boston commercial lithographer at the age of 19. By 1857 his freelance illustration career was underway and he contributed to magazines such as Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly. His early works, mostly commercial engravings, are characterized by clean outlines, simplified forms, dramatic contrast of light and dark, and lively figure groupings - qualities that remained important throughout his career.
In 1859 he opened a studio in New York City, and began his painting career. Harper's sent Homer to the front lines of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), where he sketched battle scenes and mundane camp life. His initial sketches were of the camp and army of the famous Union officer, Major General George B. McClellan at the banks of the Potomac River in October, 1861. Although the drawings did not get much attention at the time, they mark Homer's transition from illustrator to painter. Back at his studio after the war, Homer set to work on a series of war-related paintings, among them Sharpshooter on Picket Duty, and Prisoners from the Front, which is noted for its objectivity and realism.
Early landscapes
After exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, Homer traveled to Paris, France in 1867 where he remained for a year. He practiced landscape painting while continuing to work for Harper's. Though his interest in depicting natural light parallels that of the impressionists, there is no evidence of direct influence.
Throughout the 1870s he painted mostly rural or idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, and young adults courting. Homer gained acclaim as a painter in the late 1870s and early 1880s. His 1872 composition, Snap-the-Whip, was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Homer was a member of the The Tile Club, a group of artists and writers who met frequently to exchange ideas and organize outings for painting. Homer's nickname in The Tile Club was The Obtuse Bard. Other well known Tilers were painters William Merritt Chase, Arthur Quartley, and the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens.
In 1873 Homer started painting with watercolours. His impact on the medium would be revolutionary. Homer's watercolor paintings exhibit a fresh, spontaneous, loose, yet natural style. Thereafter, he seldom travelled without paper, brushes and water based paints. Homer once remarked, "You will see, in the future, I will live by my watercolors".
England
In 1875 Homer quit working as a commercial illustrator. He travelled widely, spending two years (1881 - 1882) in the English coastal village of Cullercoats, Northumberland, where he rekindled his boyhood interest in the sea, and painted the local fisherfolk. Many of the paintings at Cullercoats took as their subjects young women mending nets or looking out to sea; they are imbued with a solidity, sobriety, and earthy heroism which was new to Homer's art, and they presage the direction of his future work.
Maine and maturity
Back in the U.S., he moved to Prout's Neck, Maine (in Scarborough) and painted the seascapes for which he is best known. Notable among these dramatic struggle-with-nature images are Banks Fisherman, Eight Bells, The Gulf Stream, Rum Cay, Mending the Nets, and Searchlight, Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba. Although Homer never taught, these works strongly influenced succeeding generations of American painters for their direct and energetic interpretation of man's stoic relationship to an often neutral and sometimes harsh wilderness (See Lost on the Grand Banks, collection of Bill Gates). Robert Henri called Homer's work an "integrity of nature". (Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, HarperCollins, 1984).
In the winter Homer ventured to warmer locations in Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Additionally he 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.
Homer died at the age of 74 in his Prout's Neck studio and was interred in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His painting, Shoot the Rapids, remains unfinished.

93 Winslow Homer Paintings

Woman Feeding Chickens and Turkeys, c.1872 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Woman Feeding Chickens and Turkeys c.1872

Oil Painting
$528
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15778
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 31.4 x 46.8 cm
The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, USA

Playing a Fish, c.1875/95 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Playing a Fish c.1875/95

Oil Painting
$509
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15779
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 29.7 x 48 cm
The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, USA

A Garden in Nassau, 1885 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

A Garden in Nassau 1885

Paper Art Print
$47.49
SKU: HOM-15780
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 36.8 x 53.3 cm
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, USA

On Guard, 1864 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

On Guard 1864

Oil Painting
$534
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15781
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 31 x 23.5 cm
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, USA

The Whittling Boy, 1873 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Whittling Boy 1873

Oil Painting
$635
Canvas Print
$57.56
SKU: HOM-15782
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 40 x 57.6 cm
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, USA

The Nurse, 1867 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Nurse 1867

Oil Painting
$525
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15783
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 48.3 x 28 cm
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, USA

A Light on the Sea, 1897 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

A Light on the Sea 1897

Oil Painting
$925
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15784
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 71 x 122 cm
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Boys in a Pasture, 1874 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Boys in a Pasture 1874

Oil Painting
$680
Canvas Print
$51.26
SKU: HOM-15785
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 40.3 x 58 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Home, Sweet Home, c.1863 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Home, Sweet Home c.1863

Oil Painting
$888
Canvas Print
$57.29
SKU: HOM-15786
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 54.6 x 42 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Sunlight on the Coast, 1890 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Sunlight on the Coast 1890

Oil Painting
$848
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15787
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 77 x 123.3 cm
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

A Visit from the Old Mistress, 1876 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

A Visit from the Old Mistress 1876

Oil Painting
$734
Canvas Print
$56.34
SKU: HOM-15788
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 45.7 x 61 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, USA

In the Mountains, 1877 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

In the Mountains 1877

Oil Painting
$543
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15789
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 60.6 x 97 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

At the Window, 1872 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

At the Window 1872

Oil Painting
$788
Canvas Print
$50.99
SKU: HOM-15790
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 57 x 40 cm
Art Museum at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), c.1873/76 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) c.1873/76

Oil Painting
$1045
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15791
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61.5 x 97 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Two Figures by the Sea, 1882 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Two Figures by the Sea 1882

Oil Painting
$623
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15792
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 49 x 87.3 cm
Denver Museum of Art, Colorado, USA

Autumn, 1877 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Autumn 1877

Oil Painting
$939
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15793
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 97 x 59 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

An Adirondack Lake (The Trapper), 1870 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

An Adirondack Lake (The Trapper) 1870

Oil Painting
$927
Canvas Print
$50.15
SKU: HOM-15794
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 48.4 x 75 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA

The Watermelon Boys, 1876 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Watermelon Boys 1876

Oil Painting
$1026
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15795
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61.3 x 96.8 cm
Public Collection

Dad's Coming!, 1873 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Dad's Coming! 1873

Oil Painting
$509
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15796
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 23 x 35 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Moonlight, Wood Island Light, 1894 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Moonlight, Wood Island Light 1894

Oil Painting
$773
Canvas Print
$57.30
SKU: HOM-15797
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 78 x 102.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Girl in the Hammock, 1873 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Girl in the Hammock 1873

Oil Painting
$691
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15798
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 33.6 x 50.2 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA

Hound and Hunter, 1892 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Hound and Hunter 1892

Oil Painting
$1007
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15799
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 71.8 x 122.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Right and Left, 1909 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Right and Left 1909

Oil Painting
$750
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: HOM-15800
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 71.8 x 123 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

The Butterfly Girl, 1878 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Butterfly Girl 1878

Oil Painting
$998
SKU: HOM-15801
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 94.6 x 61 cm
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, USA

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