Winslow Homer at 21, by Joseph E. Baker.
Source: Downes, facing p.8.
Homer’s version of American society was predominantly White, with little sense of ethnic tensions, the struggle with Native Americans, and the development of the West. His version of American identity is limited by these omissions. Nevertheless, he adds other elements to his definition of nationhood in terms of its struggles and its social structures. He marks the distinction between town and country, urban and rural life, and he is especially telling in his representation of the engagement between Americans and the country’s landscapes and natural life. — Simon Cooke (in his discussion of Homer's magazine illustrations)
Biographical Material and Discussions
Selected Works
- A Sharpshooter on Picket Duty
- Gathering Berries
- Waiting for a Bite
- Snap-the-Whip
- Winter at Sea – Taking in Sail Off the Coast
- The War for the Union – Bayonet Charge
- On the Bluff at Long Branch, at the Bathing Hour
- The Dinner Horn
- Come!
- The Charge of the Light Brigade
- Thanksgiving Day
- Our National Winter Exercise – Skating
- At the Spring, Saratoga
- New England Factory Life
- The Fishing Party
- Class Day, at Harvard University
- George Blake's Letter
- Making Hay
Bibliography
Beam, Philip C. Winslow Homer’s Magazine Engravings. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Byrd, Dana E. & Goodyear, Frank. Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting. Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 2018.
Cox, Kenyon. ‘Winslow Homer.’ The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11 (November 1910): 254 –256.
Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911. Internet Archive, from a copy in the Smithsonian. Web. 5 September 2023.
Griffin, Randall C. Homer, Eakins and Anshutz: The Search for American Identity in the Gilded Age … Winslow Homer, Avatar of Americanness. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 2004.
Johns, Elizabeth.Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Linton, William James. The History of Wood Engraving in America. Boston: Estes and Lauviat, 1882.
Newlin, Alice. ‘Winslow Homer and A. B. Houghton.’ The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin31, no. 3 (March 1936): 56–59.
Tatham, David. Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003.
Weller, Allen. ‘Winslow Homer’s Early Illustrations.’ The American Magazine of Art 28, no. 7 (July 1935): 412–17.
Created 5 September 2023