IDYLLIC WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS OF WINSLOW HOMER

 

'The Gulf Stream' was created in 1899

“You will see, in the future, I will live by my watercolors.” This is what Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910) had said to one of his dealers once. Back then Homer wasn’t well known. In the years to come, however, his words came true and the American artist went on to become one of the greatest maritime painters of all time. We will trace his greatness in a 3 part series.

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator.

Regarded by many as the greatest American painter of the nineteenth century, Homer was born in Boston and raised in rural Cambridge. He began his career as a commercial printmaker, first in Boston and then in New York, where he settled in 1859. He briefly studied oil painting in the spring of 1861. In October of the same year, he was sent to the front in Virginia as an artist-correspondent for the new illustrated journal Harper’s Weekly. Homer’s earliest Civil War paintings, dating from about 1863, are anecdotal, like his prints.

Homer was famous for his idyllic and poignant depictions of the waterfront and the countryside that connect with people even today. This painting, 'The Gulf Stream' was created in 1899 and still leaves us awestruck.

Homer began a series of watercolors in 1881 based on his experiences of staying in the seaside fishing village of Cullercoats, England, for a couple of years. One of the standout features of Homer’s works was simplicity. He would often focus on the old ways and depict scenes from the daily lives of common folk with great modesty. His colors were never glaring or too bright; rather, they were always soft and soothing.

"Orange trees and gate" (1895)

For Homer, the late 1860s and the 1870s were a time of artistic experimentation and prolific and varied output. He resided in New York City, making his living chiefly by designing magazine illustrations and building his reputation as a painter, but he found his subjects in the increasingly popular seaside resorts in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and in the Adirondacks, rural New York State, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Women at leisure and children at play or simply preoccupied by their own concerns were regular subjects for the artist. Throughout the 1870s, Homer continued painting mostly rural or idyllic scenes of farm life, children playing, and young adults courting, including Country School (1871) and The Morning Bell (1872). From the beginning, his technique was natural, fluid and confident, demonstrating his innate talent for a difficult medium. "Orange trees and gate" (1895) is an outstanding example of his excellent depiction of simple sight. His impact would be revolutionary. Here, again, the critics were puzzled at first, "A child with an ink bottle could not have done worse." Surely they could not be farther from reality!

"Long Branch, New Jersey" (1869)

Many of Homer’s paintings featured quiet scenes of kids and women going about their everyday tasks or men at sea. While his dramatic waterfront paintings found him plenty of praise, it was his watercolor works with noble simplicity in them – a woman feeding chickens on a farm, boys fishing in a pond, or men relaxing in a field on a sunny day – that really stood out and established him as one of the finest artists of the medium.

"Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts" (High Tide)1870

Following his experience as an illustrator during the Civil War, Homer turned his attention to lighter scenes of contemporary life, often focusing on fashionable young women. This painting of three bathers on a Massachusetts beach was his most daring subject to date. Critics were less disturbed by its disquieting mood than by the fact that, as one observed, the figures were “exceedingly red-legged and ungainly.” As in much of Homer’s art, an air of mystery and melancholy imbues the scene, suggesting deeper meanings below the surface.