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Winslow Homer was more connected to the world arou

Winslow Homer was more connected to the world around him than he admitted. A scrapbook of clippings Homer kept, and a close eye on his pictures, give insight into the breadth of his observation. When he visited England and France in late 1866 and 1867, he had ample opportunity to see the work of Turner, Manet, Millet, Courbet and other painters who would inspire him for years to come.

Two years after Homer’s return from Europe, he exhibited his picture “Lobster Cove, Manchester, Massachusetts.” He based it on his visit to a small cove in the town of Manchester, 25 miles northeast of Boston. Unusually for Homer, it is an oil on panel. He may have painted it outside, as his contemporaries in France often did.

Not just the picture’s medium but its manner reflects the lessons he had learned in France. The painting evokes especially the unexpected inspiration he may have received from two other painters: the Barbizon landscapist Daubigny and the Symbolist master Gustave Moreau. We can’t know for sure that Homer saw the Daubigny sunset or Moreau’s “Good Samaritan” – but the light, color, compositions and techniques of these two panels would have appealed to him. His Manchester fishermen wear shirts of a blue that Moreau particularly favored.

I will discuss this work, among others, on June 7, when I speak at the Bicentennial Premiere of the Manchester Historical Museum. It will be at the glorious seaside estate, Sharksmouth. To sign up, go to

https://www.manchesterhistoricalmuseum.org/

And keep your eyes open for unexpected inspiration. Homer would approve.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910): “Lobster Cove, Manchester, Massachusetts,” 1869, Brush and oil paint on mahogany wood panel, 12 5/16 x 21 1/4 in., Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 1915-17-1.

Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878), “Sun Setting on the Oise,” 1865, Oil on mahogany panel, 39 x 67 cm, Musée d’Orsay, RF 1806.

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), “The Good Samaritan,” c. 1865, Oil on wood, 23.8 x 32.2 cm, Musée d’Orsay, RF MO P 2017 5.

#cooperhewitt
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#americanart

At a recent talk, one thoughtful Chicagoan asked a

At a recent talk, one thoughtful Chicagoan asked a question that deserved a better answer than I gave. “Did Winslow Homer use special paint to make his watercolors?”

Before Homer exhibited his first series of watercolors in early 1874 he had learned much from illustration. The starting point for each wood engraving he designed was a spirited drawing on paper that showed his good idea -- and sold it to his editor. Likewise, in these early watercolors Homer drew his lines quickly in graphite pencil, with bold geometric patterns reflecting his skill as an illustrator, and his study of Japanese woodblock prints. Last, he took out his paint – more opaque in this period than transparent. He applied it thickly, coloring between his lines and reinforcing the deceptively simple shapes of his design.

About 1878, Homer increased his use of transparent watercolor, and from then on would apply touches of opaque watercolor sparingly. The masterful boy on the boat reflects his confidence in his evolving technique.

Homer’s experimental itch never let up. Fifteen years later, at 59, he created a dazzling evocation of rapids at the headwaters of the Saguenay River in Quebec. In addition to transparent watercolor, he applied touches of both opaque watercolor and gold leaf.

Homer’s talent is undeniable. But so was his willingness to try new things, and to never give up. In art and in life, he has much to teach us.

All by Winslow Homer (1836-1910):

“Boy with Anchor,” 1873, Watercolor and gouache with graphite on beige wove paper, 7 5/8 x 13 3/4 in., Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.128.

“Boy in Boat, Gloucester” 1880, Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor and scraping, over graphite, on moderately thick, rough-textured, ivory wove paper, 9 3/16 x 13 3/4 in., Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1243.

“Under the Falls, the Grand Discharge,” 1895, Transparent watercolor over graphite with touches of opaque watercolor and gold leaf, and possibly brown ink, on cream, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper, 12 7/8 x 19 7/8 in., Brooklyn Museum, 78.151.2

#watercolor
#brooklynmuseum
#clevelandmuseumofart
#artinstitutechi
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It was such an honor to learn that my book is now

It was such an honor to learn that my book is now officially a Must-Read! So says the Massachusetts Center for the Book, which listed it as part of the 23rd annual Massachusetts Book Awards. Other non-fiction Must-Read titles include best-selling books by Eric Jay Dolin, Margaret Burnham and Roger Lowenstein. The fiction titles include superb new books by Geraldine Brooks and Celeste Ng. I am so grateful to share this honor with such gifted authors. Congratulations, one and all!

#americanartist
#ericjayd
#winslowhomer
#ozbrooks100
#pronounced_ing

So many days lately have been rainy that it has be

So many days lately have been rainy that it has been difficult to find a window to walk the dog! The sea of gray was getting to me.

But in the midst of that, I turned and look what appeared out our windows! And then when the rain stopped for long enough to stretch the dog's legs (and mine), I walked by a sign some neighborhood children had put up in the darkest days of the pandemic.

Winslow Homer found joy and meaning in nature. He witnessed the continuing drama of the created order through the cycles of season, sun, moon, tide and storm. He looked for the turning points and observed their rhythms in awe.

As he approached his 59th birthday, he sat down and wrote his brother these words:

"The Life that I have chosen gives me my full hours of enjoyment for the balance of my life. The sun will not rise, or set, without my notice, and thanks."

Like the rainbow, those words give me inspiration, and I hope they give you inspiration too. Winslow Homer can be a model for all of us -- artist and non-artist alike. Notice what appears before your eye -- and give thanks for it. Better days ahead.

Learning a profession is never easy. Winslow Homer

Learning a profession is never easy. Winslow Homer’s first work as an apprentice to a lithographer taught him tonal values. Then he designed wood engravings, which is all about drawing line. He assembled bold geometric shapes to make his narratives. Then, at New York drawing classes he learned what my friend Professor Robert Bork (University of Iowa) calls artisanal geometry.

Homer painted some glorious sunsets in the summer of 1880. But Bork showed me something I’d never seen before: two of them have an aspect ratio (width to height) of exactly 1.414. In one case, that allows Homer to locate a square to the right and a rectangle to the left with an implied arc. He positions his schooner’s mast just where the square’s diagonals cross the inscribed circle. In another, inspired by fireworks over New York Harbor, Homer’s square is at left.

In Quebec in 1897, he used an aspect ratio of exactly 1.500, which affords room for two circles of contrasting size. As Bork says, “the eye of the pike aligns with the vertical from the inscribed circle, while the horizon line at right aligns with the equivalent intersection in the half-size circle, showing the microcosm recapping the macro in a neat way.”

Last, a tropical watercolor from 1898 also has the 1.414 aspect ratio, with the rectangle at right. The branch of the tree directly over the boy’s head follows the arc of the inscribed circle. Homer used the top of the plant behind the boy’s head to center his square. His sheet’s equator runs just above the boy’s sunlit thumb.

In all these cases, Homer has devised a precise geometric harmony, despite his apparently loose technique. With increasing complexity, his unseen lines absorb and draw our eyes exactly where he wants.

All watercolors by Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and at Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum:

“Schooner at Sunset,” 1880. 9 13/16 x 13 ¾ in., 1943.298

“Sailboat and Fourth of July Fireworks (Bergen Point, NJ),” 1880. Watercolor, 9 5/8 x 13 11/16 in., 1943.305

“Pike, Lake St. John” 1897. 14 x 21 1/16 in., 1939.235

“Under the Coco Palm,” 1898. 14 15/16 x 21 3/16 in., 1920.29

#americanart
#harvardartmuseums
#winslowhomer
#watercolor

A painter makes countless decisions to make a pict

A painter makes countless decisions to make a picture. Some address light, color, and technique. Among the most foundational decisions relate to subject and composition. This oil is a good example.

What is Winslow Homer’s subject? Not the tiny clover held in silhouette against the white wall that surrounds the basement window – although that is the title he gave the picture. He has framed his composition very tightly. The interior gloom occupies nearly half of the space of the canvas, eluding our penetration. Can the girl see in? Homer seems to guide us into the interior of her head and heart as surely as he guides her gaze. In framing out the rest of the house, and the figures in it, he has compelled us to consider her, and her alone. In the watercolor he made a year later, the same window appears in a wider context, but not here.

The colors he has used are mostly dark browns, greens and whites but Homer has also included strategic uses of red, including the band of bricks at the top of the picture, the blossoms of the potted fuschia plant and of the rose at left , and the bright orange-red socks on the girl’s legs. He applied his paint in a technique that his critics sneered was “sketchy.” Homer knew that with this application of his paint, his viewers would read dappled light on the wall, and would identify with the girl more than if he had fully described her face. In the watercolor a year later he used a similar technique, and similarly withholds his description of the face of his male figure. Homer wants us to imagine that we can overhear the conversation the man is holding with the well-dressed woman in the window.

Next time you look at a picture, think about the process that led to its creation, and the painter’s choices made in developing it.

Both by Winslow Homer (1836-1910):

“The Four-Leaf Clover,” 1873. Oil on canvas, 14 1/4 x 20 3/8 in., Detroit Institute of Arts, 70.150.

“In the Garden (Rustic Courtship),” 1874. Watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper, 8 ¾ x 12 ¾ in., National Gallery of Art, 2014.18.17.

#americanart
#diadetroit
#ngadc
#winslowhomer
#americanartist

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