"Winslow Homer: The Civil War Years and Winslow Homer: The Gloucester Years (Focus Gallery 3) "
2000-12-02 until 2001-03-04
Columbia Museum of Art
Columbia, SC, USA

Between 1857 and 1875, Winslow Homer produced more than 280 wood engravings for major regional and national newspapers. He began working with Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion; and later moved on to other major papers of the day including Harpers Bazaar; Harper's Weekly; Appleton's Journal of Literature, Science, and Art; Scribner's Monthly; Hearth and Home; Our Young Folks; and Every Saturday. His greatest output occurred during the Civil War when he covered the action on the front lines and the every day tedium in camp.

Newspaper illustrations at the time were using an improved method of woodblock reproduction know as wood engraving. Using the end grain of boxwood, the illustrator could draw finer lines than the traditional, clumsier wood block. Homer, at first, drew either directly on the block or work closely with the engraver (some twenty different engravers have been identified) in the early days. On the front lines during the war, he sent in sketches, which were faithfully engraved in New York at Harper's Weekly

Once the war was over, his interest turned to watercolors and oils. The major exception was the Gloucester series in 1873 and 1874. In a final series for Harper's Weekly he produced twenty-two genre scenes including Snap-the-Whip. There has been some discussion over the years among scholars as to whether these are by Winslow Homer or after Winslow Homer. Current thinking places them in the former, rather than the latter category, and as such are legitimate works of art by a prominent American artist. As Homer matured and refined his style and technique, the engravings became better artistically and as a result, the later prints are more appealing than the earlier efforts.

IMAGE:
Winslow Homer,
American, 1836-1910
The Army of the Potomac - A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty , 1862
From Harper's Weekly, November 15, 1862
wood engraving

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of South Carolina

Other Important Exhibitions in Columbia