Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 - September 29,
1910) was an United States|American painter.


Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Homer was
apprenticeship|apprenticed to a Boston commercial
lithography|lithographer at the age of 19.  By
1857 his freelance illustration career was
underway and he  contributed to magazines as
Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Magazine|Harper's
Weekly.

His illustrations, mostly 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. 
Although the drawings did not get much attention
at the time, they influenced much of his later
work.

Back at his studio after the war, Homer set to
work on several war-related paintings, among them
Sharpshooter on Picket Duty, and Prisoners from
the Front which is noted for its objectivity and
realism. 

After exhibiting at the National Academy of
Design, Homer traveled to France in 1867 and
practiced painting landscapes while continuing to
work for Harper's. Though his interest in
depicting natual light parellels the
Impressionism|impressionists interest in natural
light, the group did not directly affect his work.

Throughout the 1870s he portrayed mostly rural or
idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, and
resorts. Homer gained acclaim as a painter in the
late 1870s and early 1880s. His 1872 composition,
Snap the Whip, showed at the 1876 Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


In 1873 he started to painting with watercolours,
and the medium became as important to him as oil
paint. His watercolor painting show a fresh,
spontaneous, loose, yet natural style. Thereafter,
Homer seldom went anywhere without paper, brushes
and water paints.

Homer once remarked,

:You will see, in the future I will live by my
watercolors.

In 1875 he quit working as a commercial
illustrator, and concentrated on painting.

He travelled widely, spending two years (1881
– 1882) in English coastal village of
Cullercoats, Northumberland, where he rekindled
his boyhood interest in the sea, and painted the
local fishermen and their families.

Back in the U.S., he moved to Prout's Neck, Maine
(near Scarborough, Maine|Scarborough) and painted
the seascapes for which he is perhaps best known. 
Notable among these dramatic struggle-with-nature
images are Banks Fisherman, Eight Bells, Gulf
Stream, Rum Cay, Mending the Nets, and
Searchlight, Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba. 

To find inspiration for his seascapes, Homer often
ventured during the winter to locations such as
Florida and the Caribbean.

Homer died at the age of 74 in his Prout's Neck
studio.  His painting, Shoot the Rapids, remained
unfinished.

==External links==
Commonscat|Winslow Homer
*
http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/cjackson/homer/index.htm
l Winslow Homer at CGFA
* http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/ WebMuseum on Homer
* http://www.artchive.com/ Homer at Artchive
* Online Gallery of the Undisputed collection of
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Winslow_Homer_Civil_W
ar.htm Winslow Homer Civil War Illustrations