Winslow Homer
1836–1910 · Realism & Academic
Biography
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) was one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. Starting as an illustrator during the Civil War, he became famous for his powerful seascapes and his scenes of rural and coastal life.
From the artist’s life
Although he lived in New York for two decades, Winslow Homer liked best to be in the countryside. As a young man he enjoyed going out to draw in the open air, and in the 1870s he grew particularly fond of the Adirondack Mountains. Over time he valued solitude more and more, and finally in 1883 he moved to a secluded corner of the Maine coast, Prout’s Neck, where he spent the rest of his life (apart from a few winter trips to the tropics). The quiet, retiring artist once wrote from Maine: “I deny that I am a hermit in the ordinary sense of the word. Nor would I call myself a misanthropic eccentric… I am a perfectly happy and contented man.”
From the page of Snap the Whip
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) started as a magazine illustrator during the American Civil War. Living in later years on the coast of Maine, he became the great American painter of the sea.
From the page of Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)
