HOMER DODGE MARTIN

Homer D. Martin, born in Albany, New York, left school at the age of thirteen to work in his father’s carpenter shop. In 1852, he began to pursue his interest in painting, receiving his only formal training with the landscape painter James Hart, a period of study which lasted only two weeks. Until 1862, Martin painted tight, realistic landscapes of New York State in the style of the early Hudson River School artists such as Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole. He lived in New York from 1862-1881, working for a time in the studio of James Smillie, then moving to a space in the Tenth Street Studio Building. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design, and was elected an Associate in 1868 and an Academician in 1875.

In 1876 Martin traveled to Europe where he met Whistler in England and then went to France where he saw the work of the Barbizon artists. He was strongly influenced by these artists, and his style changed to reflect a more intimate and suggestive view of nature. He lived in Europe from 1881-1886, and returned again to work during the summer of 1892. Martin’s eyesight began to fail and in 1893 he moved to Saint Paul Minnesota in an attempt to recover.

Martin made several trips to Newport and the work that he produced there is highly prized. Newport views by Martin can be found in the Cleveland Museum, the National Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.