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Indepth Arts News: "American Outdoors: Seasonal Prints By Winslow Homer" 2001-06-15 until 2001-09-23 Hudson River Museum Yonkers, NY, USA
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was perhaps the
most famous illustrator of his day, earning his
living as a designer of wood engravings for the
first 18 years of his career. The Museum now owns
over 100 of Homer's prints for the New York City
periodical Harper's Weekly, due to a recent gift by
Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Lefcourt. Americans Outdoors
presents a selection of these, highlighting the
artist's astute and charming observations of
Americans at work and play in the great outdoors.
Two of Homer's earliest prints, The Bathe at
Newport and Skating at Boston (both 1858) ,
foretell his later preoccupation with social
activities and recreation, but in 1861 Harper's
dispatched him to cover the Civil War. In prints
such as Holiday in Camp-Soldiers Playing
Football (1865), Homer reveals his interest
in everyday scenes of camaraderie away from
the battlefield.
The most accomplished of Homer's later
wood engravings, such as Snap the Whip (1873),
relate to his paintings. Having established his
reputation, he could contribute themes of his OWl}
choosing, and he favored middle class leisure
activities and genial aspects of rural life. His
images of young ladies riding horses, swimming
or engaging in other outdoor pursuits display
a new type of energetic, carefree woman quite the
opposite to the demure beauty of pre-Civil War
days. Also from this era are Raid on a Sand swallow
Colony (1874) and the other children's series
prints, as well as scenes of men camping and
hunting based on his own summer trips to the
Adirondack Mountains in 1870 and 1874.
Despite Homer's great success at illustration,
he made a conscious decision to pursue painting
as his main focus and, in fact, became one of
America's great masters. Today, he is equally
revered as a consummate graphic artist,
whose best engravings bridge the gap between
commercial work and fine art.
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