Winslow Homer (1836-1910)

Winslow Homer is a major figure in American painting. Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836 and grew up in Cambridge, MA. He apprenticed with lithographer J. H. Bufford in Boston in 1855. Homer also studied drawing at the National Academy of Design. He began his career in 1857 as an illustrator for Ballou’s Pictorial in Boston. By 1859 he was working for Harpers Weekly in New York City.

In 1861 Homer began painting, having studied briefly with Frederic Rondel in New York City. He spent ten months in France in 1866-67. After his return his work began to show his exposure to French Impressionism. After 1873, Homer began to paint in watercolors and became a great master of the medium. In 1882 he settled in Prout’s Neck, Maine, but continued to travel in the eastern United States, Canada, Bahamas and Bermuda until his death in Prout’s Neck in 1910.

Homer was a member of the National Academy of Design, 1865; American Watercolor Society, 1876; Century Association; and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His works are among the collections of the National Gallery of Art; National Museum of American Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; Whitney Museum of American Art; St. Louis Art Museum; Clark Institute of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts; Delaware Art Museum; Denver Art Museum; Butler Art Institute; and the Shelburne Museum, Vermont.