WINSLOW HOMER

AMERICAN PASSAGE

by William R. Cross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2022

A rich biography of the towering artist who captured the realities of 19th-century America.

Drawing on abundant scholarship and archival sources, Cross chronicles in vibrant detail the career, travels, friendships, and prolific output of Winslow Homer (1836-1910). With no diaries and few letters available to document much of his subject’s life, Cross speculates about what the artist “may have” or “appears to have” done or felt. But the author is so deeply cognizant of 19th-century art, history, and material culture that his inferences are thoroughly persuasive. Growing up in Boston, Homer was encouraged by his mother, an artist herself. As a young man, Homer worked for a prominent Boston lithographer, soon contributing wood engravings to illustrated magazines, notably Harper’s Weekly, which became his principal client. During the Civil War, he made several stays at the front, sketching scenes of camp life for Harper’s. The successful illustrator, though, aspired to be recognized as a painter. Moving from Boston to New York in 1859, Homer began to submit his work to group exhibitions. In 1866, he sailed for Europe, where he visited museums and galleries—Cross recounts the works he would have seen—and although no drawings survive from that trip, he brought back many pastoral scenes that he painted in the French countryside. By the time he returned 10 months later, Cross notes, “he returned to America penniless,” intent on marketing his work to wealthy buyers. The oils and watercolors that Homer produced for the next decades of his life, as he grew increasingly famous, reflect the landscapes in which he thrived: the White Mountains, Jersey shore, Caribbean, Adirondacks, and Prouts Neck, Maine, where his family had bought property. His subjects often were ordinary men and women—including those newly freed from slavery—engaged in work or pleasure. This deeply contextualized portrait features more than 400 images, including maps drawn specifically for this volume.

Gracefully written, empathetic, and authoritative.

Pub Date: April 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-374-60379-3

Page Count: 560

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: April 11, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ART & PHOTOGRAPHY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR