Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) ranks among the greatest and most beloved American artists. This affordably-priced book -- among the most comprehensive to date -- covers his early works and great themes: the Civil War, England, Gloucester, Canada, the Adirondacks, the Tropics, Florida, and the seascapes of Prout's Neck, Maine. Largely self-taught, Homer mastered both oils and watercolors, raising the latter medium to a fine art. In oils his style is powerful, in watercolors sensuous, luminous. His work embraces a wide spectrum of American life, but the monumental seascapes that became his obsession, painted in Gloucester, England, and in the isolated Maine studio where he spent the latter part of his life, are among his most dramatic and emotionally charged works. In them his keen observation of nature reaches its pinnacle, capturing the ocean in all its lights and moods, its terrifying furies and shrouded calms. Taken together, Homer's works record a world expressive of all the senses, a world not merely visual but intellectual and spiritual, and therein lies their enduring appeal.