Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was a “Yankee to the bone,” during a time when all of America was falling in love with the European aesthetic. American society during the post-Civil-War industrial boom was war-weary and wanted to forget about home for a while so they found solace in European Old World art and architecture. Whistler became an expatriate and America artists followed him en masse. Sargent became the darling of the wealthy on both sides of the Atlantic, but on their return, many American artists could not sell their European style paintings because the wealthy wanted to buy only from authentic European artists. When I lived in England, I became very interested in Whistler and Sargent because I could relate to them as a fellow expatriate. Homer became so annoyed with fellow artists burbling on about beauty, he dismissed them and replied that his pictures were not intended to be beautiful. Ironically, he moved to Europe to escape them and everything else that he felt was wrong with American art. But he steered very clear of the art meccas; he decided to go to a somber fishing village on the North Sea of England. There he became somewhat of a recluse and began to paint the untamed sea. Eventually he moved back to America, to Maine, where he went on painting seascapes until his death.

I discovered Thomas Eakins through reading this book and was awed with his discipline. He entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and submitted himself to its crusty academic curriculum. He copied in pencil and chalk, again and again, plaster casts of famous antique statues. He dissected cadavers at a medical college to aid his accuracy in figure drawing. He did this for five years before beginning to paint. Then he went to Paris and worked from living models. He sold very little in his lifetime and was under appreciated before he became known as one of America’s greatest painters.
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