Portrait of Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer Painting Reproductions 4 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

Old Mill (The Morning Bell), 1871 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Old Mill (The Morning Bell) 1871

Oil Painting
$1009
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15802
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61 x 96.8 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut, USA

The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside), 1870 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside) 1870

Oil Painting
$928
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15803
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 49 x 35 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Maine Coast, 1896 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Maine Coast 1896

Oil Painting
$827
Canvas Print
$50.54
SKU: HOM-15804
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 76.2 x 101.6 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

The Gale, c.1883/93 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Gale c.1883/93

Oil Painting
$927
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15805
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 76.8 x 122.7 cm
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA

Milking Time, 1875 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Milking Time 1875

Oil Painting
$1007
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15806
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61 x 97 cm
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, USA

Hark! The Lark, 1882 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Hark! The Lark 1882

Oil Painting
$1130
Canvas Print
$64.14
SKU: HOM-15807
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 92.4 x 79.7 cm
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA

Gloucester Harbor, 1873 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Gloucester Harbor 1873

Oil Painting
$605
Canvas Print
$51.78
SKU: HOM-15808
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 39.3 x 56.8 cm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA

On the Beach, 1869 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

On the Beach 1869

Oil Painting
$720
SKU: HOM-15809
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 40.6 x 63.5 cm
Public Collection

Sparrow Hall, c.1881/82 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Sparrow Hall c.1881/82

Oil Painting
$924
Canvas Print
$51.78
SKU: HOM-15810
Winslow Homer
Original Size: unknown
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

The West Wind, The West W by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The West Wind The West W

Oil Painting
$734
SKU: HOM-15811
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 76.2 x 111.7 cm
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, USA

Driftwood, 1909 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Driftwood 1909

Oil Painting
$823
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15812
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 62.2 x 72.4 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Twilight at Leeds, New York, 1876 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Twilight at Leeds, New York 1876

Oil Painting
$752
SKU: HOM-15813
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61.3 x 71 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

The Lookout - 'All's Well', 1896 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Lookout - 'All's Well' 1896

Oil Painting
$888
SKU: HOM-15814
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 101.3 x 76.5 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

A Game of Croquet, 1866 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

A Game of Croquet 1866

Oil Painting
$924
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15815
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 60.3 x 87.9 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut, USA

The Brush Harrow, 1865 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Brush Harrow 1865

Oil Painting
$984
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15816
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 61 x 96 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Pitching Quoits, 1865 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Pitching Quoits 1865

Oil Painting
$1072
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15817
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 68 x 136.5 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

Waverly Oaks, 1864 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Waverly Oaks 1864

Oil Painting
$603
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15818
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 33.6 x 25.4 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Beach Scene, c.1869 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Beach Scene c.1869

Oil Painting
$518
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15819
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 29.3 x 24 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Portrait of Helena de Kay, c.1872 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Helena de Kay c.1872

Oil Painting
$619
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15820
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 31 x 47 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Signal of Distress, 1890 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

The Signal of Distress 1890

Oil Painting
$960
Canvas Print
$49.85
SKU: HOM-15821
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 62 x 98 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda, 1899 by Winslow Homer | Painting Reproduction

Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda 1899

Paper Art Print
$47.47
SKU: HOM-17832
Winslow Homer
Original Size: 35.4 x 53.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

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