12 Artists Magazine May 2019
Prime ANATOMY OF A PAINTING
f
or much of his life, Winslow
Homer (American, 1836–1910)
lived near water. The ocean
became a central, if not dominant,
theme in his work. It initially served as
a setting for youthful recreation in
paintings that celebrated children sail-
ing, bathing or picking fruit by the sea.
But by 1880, Homer had begun
to withdraw from polite society, and
the sunny mood of his early work
evolved into something more serious.
The dapper, cosmopolitan artist
turned truculent, and his painting
reflected the change. A summer trip
to Gloucester, Mass., resulted in
a series of radically expressive water-
colors of the harbor. There followed
what would prove to be a transitional
20-month stay in Cullercoats, on the
coast of England. Handsome young
fisherwomen populated these works,
but they cut monumental figures,
often set against a gray sea. The ocean
became a lethal force, and the subject
of shipwrecks entered Homer’s lexicon.
After Homer returned to the
United States, he settled in Prout’s
Neck, Maine, and his home and studio
overlooked the Atlantic. Although hecontinued to travel in the last
25 years of his life—finding subjects
in the Adirondacks, Florida, Cuba and
the Bahamas—he kept to a small
circle of family and friends. On his
studio door hung a sign that read “coal
bin,” a wry attempt to throw curious
trespassers off his trail. Visitors were
invited to sit on a bench made from
twisted driftwood so uncomfortable
that long stays were discouraged.
At Prout’s Neck, Homer inadver-
tently crafted a prototype of the
taciturn Yankee artist, a painter who
preferred the solitude of nature to
suffering the attention of fools. His
great contributions are watercolors
of breathtaking freedom and striking
luminosity, and oils of a rough vitality
that was new to American art.Jerry N. Weiss is a contributing writer
to fine art magazines and teaches at the
Art Students League of New York.Moon River
On a summer night, WINSLOW HOMER walked down to the rocks
outside his studio and painted a stunning ocean nocturne.By Jerry N. WeissMoonlight, Wood Island Light
by Winslow Homer
1894; oil on canvas, 30¾x40¼GIFT OF GEORGE A. HEARN, IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR HOPPOCK HEARN, 1911/THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART“My boy, if you want to make a good sea,
use only two waves.”
—winslow homer
Moonlight, Wood
Island Light is an
anomaly—a major
oil that, according
to the artist’s first
biographer, was
painted in just four
or five hours. The
story goes that
Homer was sitting
and talking with his
nephew on a
summer evening
when the artist was
suddenly inspired to
climb down the
rocks and paint this
canvas, his only
light provided by
the moon.