Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer unarguably is the most sought after American painter because throughout his career he painted the American scene in a realistic, humane manner that popularized American traditions with the public.

The marine painter-illustrator Winslow Homer was born in Boston February 4 and raised in Cambridge, MA. Living with a mother who painted in watercolor, she identified as good his innate drawing ability.

In 1855, Homer worked with Eastman Johnson’s teacher, Boston lithographer J.H. Bufford and moved to NYC in 1859 to room near Johnson and study for a short period with Frederick Rondel at the National Academy of Design. He is considered to be “purely American” because he only studied in America. By 1857, he drew striking, realistic illustrations for Harper’s Weekly and Ballou’s Pictorial and by 1866 he completed the memorable, realistic view Prisoners from the Front (Metropolitan Museum) of the Civil War Conflict and became well-known as a Civil War illustrator.

During a trip to France (1865-1867), he responded positively to the candid canvases of Edouard Manet and from 1881-1882 he painted daring views of hearty people in fishing villages near Tynemouth, England. In 1882, he moved permanently to Prout’s Neck, Scarboro, Maine, and became a extremely reclusive.

Homer was a member of the National Academy (1865), American Water Color Society (1876), Century Association, National Institute of Arts & Letters. His short list of awards include Art Institute, Chicago (1896), PAFA (gold 1896, 1902), Pan-Am Expo., Buffalo (gold, 1901), Charleston Expo. (gold, 1902), St. Louis Expo. (gold, 1904). His work is represented in hundreds of museum collections including those at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Butler Institute of Amer. Art, Youngstown, Oh; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Denver Art Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; St. Louis Art Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; PAFA; and the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA.  He died in Prouts Neck, Maine.