Winslow Homer
American Artist
1836-1910
Boys in a Pasture, 1874 oil on canvas*
The Hayden Collection, MFA, Boston
Like so many American artists, Winslow Homer had strong New England roots. He was born in Boston, and at the age of six moved with his family to Cambridge. In 1858 his family moved to Belmont, and the following year Home himself left for New York where he had his studio until 1880. In 1859 he moved to New York City, where began his career as a painter. He visited the front during the Civil War and his first important paintings were of Civil War subjects.
Winslow Homer, an artist known for his paintings but also for his illustrations and etchings, is considered one of America's greatest watercolor painters. His bold landscape paintings are a study of the relationship between people and nature.
Homer was born February 24, 1836, in Boston. From early on, he proved an active outdoorsman. At the age of nineteen, he obtained an apprenticeship at J.H. Bufford's lithographic firm, which helped him become a freelance illustrator. The advent of the Civil War saw him travel south with the Union Armies as an artist-correspondent for Harper's.
Shortly after returning to America in 1882, Homer moved to Prout's Neck, Maine, where he kept a solitary studio. He produced dramatic maritime masterpieces such as Eight Bells, while also creating etchings. These powerful sea paintings are some of the masterpieces Homer is most known for.
Winslow Homer was one of America's greatest artists. Although he died in 1910, his work is still very popular with collectors and museum visitors. Art historians continue to bring to light new information about Homer and new interpretations of his art.
American landscape, marine, and genre painter. Homer was born in Boston, where he later worked as a lithographer and illustrator. In 1861 he was sent to the battlefront as correspondent for Harper's Weekly, his work winning international acclaim.
*These two country boys seem the epitome of innocence and well-being. They may express Homer's nostalgic longing for his own carefree boyhood in rural Cambridge. Reflecting the later nineteenth century's new understanding of childhood as a distinct and significant stage of life, Homer ennobled the figures by composing them against the sun-dappled meadow. This work may have been painted in Belmont, Massachusetts, where Homer's parents and his uncle lived for many years.
http://library.thinkquest.org/10575/american/homerbio.html?tqskip=1
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/homer/homer_bio.htm
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?15100