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F R O M P O E TRY TO F I C TI O N – TH E E N G R AV E D W O R K S I LLUM I NATED WITH PER IOD PHOTO GR APH S FULLY I LLUSTR ATED CH ECKLI ST I NCLUDI NG I NTER PR ETIVE NOTES
REILLY RHODES Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions
Permissions, Catalogue and Figure (Fig.) Numbering
IMAGE CREDITS Cover:
All works of art in this book and accompanying exhibition of the same title have corresponding numbers listed in the chapters, checklists and exhibition wall labels. Works of art illustrated in the book only are identified with a number preceded by ‘Fig.’
209. “Snap-the-Whip,” 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint Fig. 1. Country School Boys, c. 1875-1880
Works of art listed in the Color Plates are illustrated in the book only. Permission rights have been granted by lending museums and private collectors.
Tintype photo CMPE Back cover:
205. The Noon Recess, 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint Zandhoek School, c. 1914 District School No. 4, Hurley, NY Silver print Frontispiece:
Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works: Illuminated with Period Photographs First edition published by Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions Laguna Niguel, CA–USA Copyright © 2017 Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions For the text © Reilly Rhodes All rights reserved. No part of the text of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. No work of art illustrated in this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. Request for permission to copy any part of the book, other than illustrated works as stated above, should be emailed to the publisher: Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions Laguna Niguel, CA printexhibitions@cox.net
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rhodes, Reilly. Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction - The Engraved Works ISBN: 978-0-578-15050-5 1. Reilly Rhodes 2. Homer, Winslow, 1836–1910 3. Nineteenth Century American History 4. Poetry and Fiction 5. American Civil War History 6. Fine Art Prints: Wood Engravings 7. Fashion of the Nineteenth Century and Civil War Period Library of Congress Control Number 2016919194 Design: Lilla Hangay Copy Editor: Cristin Riedel Production: InnerWorkings, Ltd., San Francisco Printed in China by Artron Art Printing (HK) Ltd.
174. The Playmates, 1869, by Winslow Homer for John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “My Playmate,” illustrated in Ballads of New England, published by Fields, Osgood and Company, Boston, 1870 Wood engraving on wove Double page frontispiece:
74. Skating on the Ladies’ Skating-Pond in the Central Park, New York Published by Harper’s Weekly, January 28, 1860 Wood engraving on newsprint Opposite page: Fig. 2. Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
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CONTENTS 12 23 39 56 80 112
Prologue Introduction The American Scene Winslow Homer – Imagination & Innovation Fashion, Style & Indulgence
Civil War – The Embedded Artist - Children in War – Acts of Gallantry - Song of Innocence and Solace - Camp Life on the Yorktown Turnpike - Letters Home
145 Beginning of a New Era – Conceiving a National Art for America 173 The Disappearing One-Room Schoolhouse 221 Eyewitness to History – Vintage Photography
in the Nineteenth Century
249 Postscript 254
Endnotes
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Acknowledgments
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Checklist with Interpretive Notes - A Didactic Approach
- Apprentice Years / Lithographs for Sheet Music Covers - Wood Engravings / Organized by Date of Publication
386
217. Gathering Berries (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, July 11, 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/16 X 13-11/16 in. (23.02 X 34.77 cm)
Color Plates: Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Photographs, Prints and Costumes from American Museums and Private Collections
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Winslow Homer Wood Engravings Listed by Date
398
Winslow Homer Wood Engravings Listed by Subject and Theme
402
Winslow Homer Engravings with Identified Models
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List of Prose and Poetry Books and Publications with Engravings Attributed to Winslow Homer
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Chronology
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Bibliography
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CMPE Publications
415
Museum Touring Exhibitions Organized by CMPE
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PROLOGUE There have been many books and exhibitions based on the subject of Winslow Homer’s wood engravings. This one is different. This is an attempt to fully examine and interpret the graphic work of America’s most beloved artist of the nineteenth century, and to breathe life and understanding into the images that Homer so carefully and meticulously sketched for publication in the pictorial press. This review further examines how Homer transitioned from popular illustrator to painter, providing America with its own national art identity.
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ccompanying the engravings included in this book are paintings, watercolors, historical photographs, as well as a few works by other artists. These additional works have been added to aid in the research and interpretation of Homer’s art and times. In search for supportive documentation, rare, one-of-a-kind tintype photographs have been discovered. A selection of these tintypes, none of which has ever been exhibited or previously published, has been included. The images in the tintypes are remarkably similar and in some cases identic to Homer’s subjects and models in his engravings produced between 1860 and 1875. The vintage photographs show ordinary people, some serving in the military, others as testament of an occupational vocation, and a few caught as chance subjects, such as the image on the cover of this book.
The organization of this publication and the accompanying exhibition of the same title has been enriching, thought-provoking and one of the most intensely challenging projects of my entire career. In a sense, this
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project grew out of its own calling and with its own time frame. I had no intent, when I began researching Winslow Homer engravings as early as the mid-1990s, to bring together such a comprehensive and, as I discovered, often overlooked and underrated body of work from the early development of the artist’s career. Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is regarded by many as the greatest American artist of the nineteenth century and, for some, he may also be considered the first American modernist. In light of the enormous popularity of Homer’s art during his lifetime and still today, it seems amiss that there would not be more interpretive information about him and his art. There are no biographies about Homer that give an unerring narrative of his life that might be reliably used to verify certain events and provide insight to unanswered questions. We know very little about his friendships or ties with other artists, or whom he admired and emulated. He never married and was thought to be timid and shy in the company of young women. It is assumed that his personal relationships were largely limited to his family.
29. Picnicking in the Woods (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, September 4, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/4 x 13-3/4 in. (23.45 x 34.93 cm)
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DRIVING HOME THE CORN
This New England fall farm scene shows a team of oxen pulling a loaded wagon of freshly cut stalks of corn from the field to a nearby corn shed, used to dry and cure the corn. An oxen driver leads the animals toward the open gate to one of the storage cribs.
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31. Driving Home the Corn Published by Harper’s Weekly, November 13, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 5-7/8 x 9-1/4 in. (14.92 x 23.5 cm)
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hat we do know is told through his art and for that reason, one cannot discount the importance of his early work. These engravings serve as reliable evidence of events and provide a record of Winslow Homer’s life and art. Considering what cannot be learned directly from his art, it becomes important to study the period in which he lived. Examining where he was, from Boston to New York, from apprentice to illustrator, from plein air to atelier, is helpful to understand what subjects appealed to him and why. Identifying with the historical background during the time Homer lived can, and does, give rise to many facts and clues about his work and life. It is unfortunate that much of what has been written about him becomes lost in a sea of speculation and conjecture. This study is an attempt not to fall victim to such conclusions. This study would not, however, serve history well if it were not inviting the opportunity to delve into unexplored territory when it comes to the work of Winslow Homer. Of all the artists to take a chance on writing about, Homer is certainly one of the most, if not the most, intriguing. There is more to understand and disentangle when it comes to Winslow Homer. Homer was a painter as well as illustrator of modern life who observed, recorded and interpreted events that took place around him. It takes great insight to understand the challenges of how an artist’s maturation process is developed from early to late career. Not everyone is a prodigy from start to finish and, in the case of Winslow Homer, one could not find a better example of how his art progressed from his youth to old age. There is often a value and founding in the early work of great artists that leads to the dimension of their measure in art history. In view of what has been written and said about Winslow Homer, it may seem presumptuous to attempt yet
another word on the artist. It may be bold, perhaps, to suggest that a study of his early monochromatic engravings and related paintings could produce insight into his later work. That actuality may surprise many admirers and scholars of Winslow Homer. Though there were only brief mentions about him and his graphic work in the pictorial press, exhibition reviews and miscellaneous news accounts during his lifetime, there is much to be gained by examining these records. To dismiss his early development and focus only on his work and events after 1875, as is most often the case, simply lacks foresight. Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction – The Engraved Works focuses on one-third of Homer’s artistic career. The American scene in the mid- and latenineteenth century is an important place to begin a search for answers about Winslow Homer. During this time, Homer witnessed a transition of America moving from a predominantly agricultural nation to an industrial giant on the verge of becoming a world leader in all areas of commerce, government and society. One must expect to learn that he had struggles, like all artists, and that he was affected by events, personal experiences, as well as national developments. This review of Homer’s engraved works is told in terms of historical and artistic changes that took place in Homer’s time. His exposure to and involvement with society, poetry, and literature stimulated his creative output as an artist. As a youth, Homer was not a good student and preferred to be outdoors rather than to go to school. He was largely a self-taught artist, though his mother was a watercolorist and he attended art classes for a short time in New York in his early twenties. Homer was an artist of great promise and during his lifetime, he rose to fame quickly. He was independent and, for the most part, selfreliant. His illustrations in the pictorial press brought great praise from readers as well as editors. At the same time, he
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was submitting his work to public exhibitions in New York. Though he was not paid well and there remained a need to take on commissions as an illustrator, he had his eye on the future and worked toward his goal of becoming a full-time fine artist as a painter.
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n January 1864, Homer exhibited his first major oil, Sharpshooter, at the Athenaeum Club in New York. Other war-related subjects were unveiled the same year. All were dramatic and powerful works that gained immediate attention and drew interest that continues to this day. As impressive as they were, not all of Homer’s paintings were enlightening nor inspiring. In the view of Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, Associate Curator of American Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1956-1966) and author of Winslow Homer—American Artist: His World and His Art, Homer did not begin to paint works that inspired until his return from France the year after he had attended the Exposition Universelle de 1867, Paris. Contrary to many opinions on Homer’s work, Gardner believed that while there did not seem to be any telling influences in Homer’s painting style or interests, he was ‘changed’ as a result of his time spent abroad.1 Gardner stated in the catalogue for the joint exhibition at the National Gallery of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art that he believed “Homer’s trip to Paris was the most important event in his entire career as an artist.”2 Not only did Homer begin devoting more time to painting, but also the quality of his engravings began to show remarkable improvement in their mannerism and style. It was then that Homer began to merge painting ideas and engraving subjects and one became an extension of the other. By 1873, Homer was producing some of his finest wood engravings with a new focus on America’s youth.
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Today, these works, among others, can be appreciated without any in-depth background of events taking place. The addition of selected early tintype photographs in this publication and accompanying exhibition are captivating and astonishing. They also provide invaluable information and documentation of late nineteenth-century fashion and activities of those depicted in the images. Photography was a new medium in the mid-nineteenth century and the use of the tintype runs almost parallel with the dates of Homer’s career as an artist. The tintype became the most popular photography medium in America for the remainder of the century. The sheer volume of photographs taken of ordinary people has provided history a beneficial resource of information with respect to American life and culture that would not otherwise exist. These rare images energize and electrify Homer’s early works and give a deeper meaning to his graphic works. I have tried to contribute some meaningful interpretation with insight and clarification regarding the understanding of Homer’s engravings and their relationship to his work in oil and watercolor that followed his cessation of making sketches for the pictorial press. The one important thing that I have come to understand about Homer’s black and white engravings is that he did not just see these early works as monochromatic; he envisioned them as single hue prints with their extended use of shades, tones and tints. In his own words, Homer said, “It is wonderful how much depends upon the relationship of black and white. Why do you know, black and white, if properly balanced, suggests color.” Reilly Rhodes Curator
PICNICKING IN THE WOODS
This amusing scene is filled with action that one might encounter while picnicking in the woods. Children are running, playing and climbing trees. On the left, a couple is confronted by a snake on the pathway while a family gathers walnuts or chestnuts nearby. In the center of the composition, a young couple is engaged in conversation. The woman at the right holds a tray of refreshments for the children, whose lunch is set out on a blanket in the foreground.
29. Picnicking in the Woods Published by Harper’s Weekly, September 4, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/4 x 13-3/4 in. (23.45 x 34.93 cm)
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INTRODUCTION In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. —Irving Stone
Winslow Homer’s wood engravings showcase American life in an extraordinary way. Not only was Homer’s style naturalism, it was also homegrown. His work was very much about ordinary living at a unique time in American history. Homer’s occupation as an illustrator for the pictorial press started in the late 1850s and ended in 1875. It was during the Civil War that he began to alter the direction of his career from illustrator to fine artist.
F 22. The Boston Common (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, May 22, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/4 x 13-15/16 in. (23.5 x 35.4 cm)
or most of Homer’s lifetime, the Hudson River School was celebrated and extolled for its pastoral landscape paintings. The movement was intended to reflect an aesthetic vision of the American landscape and was influenced by romanticism that originated in Europe toward the end of the eighteenth century. The name of the movement in America was derived from the Hudson River Valley and its surrounding areas, including the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, as well as the White Mountains, all locations that Homer would visit and paint decades later. Though Homer was drawn to understanding the landscape and painting techniques of the Hudson River School artists, he remained independent of their influence, clinging to his uniquely American style of art.1 In the late 1870s and 1880s, Homer’s art was, to varying degrees, categorized by some critics and historians as being part of the American Barbizon School, the movement that followed the Hudson River School. The
Barbizon movement originated in France in the early nineteenth century and its artists sought to paint directly from nature. Prior to that time, painters only idealized nature, as inspired by ancient poetry, not actually working as plein air painters. The American Barbizon School recognized the value of working plein air as the French classical painter Nicolas Poussin had done in the seventeenth century. Though, unlike Poussin’s leitmotifs and mythography, their focus was seeking not only direct contact with the indigenous character of the landscape, but also a setting of natural light.2 Artists associated with the American Barbizon School included George Inness, Thomas Eakins, William Morris Hunt, William Keith and Childe Hassam. Homer, however, was never part of any school of art. He was largely self-taught and inspired by his own thinking. His career as a painter was not rushed and, although he observed the work of others, he seemed to have had an understanding of what was required to
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make a work of fine art. Homer recognized the value and importance of creating art that was imaginative, aesthetic and intellectual in its content. Many of his wood engravings illustrated for the pictorial press achieved this high standard. In this book, some of Homer’s engravings have been juxtaposed with the works of other artists to promulgate the divergence in their works. Homer’s engravings are of extremely high quality and proven to be collectable by museums, historians and art connoisseurs.
CORTEZ HIMES Calvin Cortez Himes was the son of Charles H. Himes and Mary McCanna, both originally from Rutland County, Vermont. He was the brother of Charles H. Himes, Jr., a veteran of the Civil War. Calvin Himes’ occupation is listed as a publisher and he is thought to have lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the tintype, Mr. Himes wears a top hat, a common accessory of the upper class during the 1850s.
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omer’s diverse subjects and inclination to depict events factually make his wood engravings an invaluable historical resource. New England Factory Life—“Bell-Time,” 1868, Summer in the Country, 1869, Waiting for Calls on New-Year’s Day, 1869, The Picnic Excursion, 1869, Spring Farm Work—Grafting, 1870, Lumbering in Winter, 1871, and The Noon Recess, 1873, reveal what life was like in the post-Civil War era.
Fig. 5. Portrait of Calvin Cortez Himes
Tintype, c. 1860 3-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. (8.89 x 6.35 cm) CMPE
After witnessing the devastation of war as an embedded artist, Homer took an extended leave to visit Europe. When he returned to America in 1868, he began illustrating scenes that expressed a new hope for the future of America through the depictions of children. His engravings for the children’s publication Our Young Folks began to show children at leisure, but often fewer in number and sometimes alone (Green Apples, The Bird-Catchers and Watching the Crows). It becomes clear that Homer was not witnessing the same America as before the war. Homer’s illustrations captured and recorded the events of the day, how people reacted to new trends and fads, and what their daily lives were like among the segment of society with which he began to associate— America’s affluent and wealthy. Some examples of high fashion were white ruffled dresses worn by young women as seen in The Beach at Long Branch, 1869, and On the Bluff at Long Branch, at the Bathing Hour, 1870. Many of the engravings from his early Boston period also showed Continued on p. 30 Fig. 6. Boston Common, c. 1920
Glass negative, Shorpy Historic Images
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THE BOSTON COMMON The introduction of municipal parkland projects in many major cities provided amenities to enhance social and family life. The city of Boston was able to preserve much of the natural terrain in the Boston Common. Fountains, walkways and a promenade that surrounded the fashionable neighborhood attracted people of all walks of life. Many of Boston’s upper- and middle-class residents made use of the park where children played, mothers and nannies visited and socialized, and families shared intimate moments.
22. The Boston Common Published by Harper’s Weekly, May 22, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/4 x 13-15/16 in. (23.5 x 35.4 cm)
Homer presents an everyday scene of activity at the Common: adults are engaged in conversation or relaxing on park benches, a game of ring toss is being played by two young girls on the left, and a young boy, on the far right, is enjoying nature while fascinated with a squirrel climbing a tree.
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THE MATCH BETWEEN THE SOPHS AND FRESHMEN Nearly all of the students at Harvard College lived on campus. There were nine river houses located south of Harvard Yard between the Yard and the Charles River near Harvard Square. Student groups included fraternities, sororities and social clubs. Harvard College organizations focused on campus publications, such as The Harvard Crimson. Plus, academic and athletic activities, political councils and clubs, and music and theater groups were in abundance. Edward Thomas Damon, son of Thomas Jefferson and Rachel (Thomas) Damon, was born in Wayland, MA, on April 19, 1835. Damon died November 30, 1859, of smallpox, which he contracted while visiting Rainsford-Island Hospital in Boston Harbor.
Fig. 7. Cambridge Student
Edward Thomas Damon, c. 1857 Tintype 3-1/8 x 2-11/16 in. (7.94 x 6.83 cm) Private collection
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Fig. 8. Cambridge Student Samuel Dorr, Esq., 1857 Tintype 3-5/8 x 2-3/8 in. (9.21 x 6.03 cm) Private collection
Samuel Dorr, son of Samuel Fox and Elizabeth Chipman (Hazen) Dorr, was born in New York on June 11, 1836. He began the study of law in the office of the Hon. Francis O. Watts on October 1, 1857, making Boston his home. In the years that followed, he was admitted to practice at the Suffolk Bar and began to travel extensively throughout Europe. He then returned to set up a law practice in New York. A “Report of the Class of 1857 in Harvard College” was compiled and published nine years after graduation. Many of the students pursued additional education in the fields of medicine and law, some engaged in business ventures or volunteered for military duty during the war years (both North and South), and others became ministers, teachers and school administrators.
Some traveled throughout the world to Europe, the Middle East, India, Russia and Asia. A few had died early from typhoid, cholera or from injuries in the Civil War. For the majority, they had settled into careers and family life and began making a contribution to society and the communities where they lived. In some of his earliest wood engravings, Homer created two scenes that depict campus life at Harvard: The Match Between the Sophs and Freshmen—The Opening, 1857, and Class Day, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, 1858.
6. The Match Between the Sophs and Freshmen—The Opening Published by Harper’s Weekly, August 1, 1857 Wood engraving on newsprint 6 x 21-1/2 in. (15.24 x 54.61 cm)
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REPORT ON THE CLASS OF 1857 THORNDIKE DELAND HODGES He began the study of law at the Law School in Cambridge immediately after graduating, and remained there for one year; he then continued studying at Salem, remaining there until the following June. Shortly after, he established himself in the practice of his profession at Haverhill, Massachusetts. In August 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, and was appointed sergeant shortly afterward. In April 1863, he was promoted to captain in the First North Carolina Volunteers, afterwards known as the Thirty-fifth United States Colored Troops. He was in active service in Virginia, Kentucky, the Carolinas and Florida. In January 1866, he was honorably discharged, and on April 27th, opened an office in Boston for the practice of law.
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STANTON BLAKE Soon after graduating, he went to Europe, and entered the banking-house of George Peabody. He returned in 1858 and entered the house of Blake Brothers & Co., bankers and brokers, in Boston. In 1859, Blake again went to England, returning early in 1860. In April 1860, he began the banking business in New York, in connection with the Boston firm. In June 1862, he again went to England, and returned in September of the same year. JAMES AMORY PERKINS Determined on entering the mercantile profession, and with this objective in mind, Perkins sailed for Calcutta in July 1857, where he remained for several months, inquiring into all things relating to the business he had chosen for his future life. He returned by way of Europe, spending some months traveling on the continent, and reaching home in June 1859. He entered his father’s counting-room and, in the spring of 1861, became a partner in the house.
Four vignettes: 6-a–d. Freshmen, Sophs, Juniors, Seniors Each measuring 7 x 5 in. (17.78 x 12.7 cm)
JOSEPH MAY At the time of graduation, May was at a water cure on Lake Skaneateles, near Syracuse, N.Y., endeavoring to revive his system, prostrated by a severe attack of illness in the middle of his senior year. In March 1858, he went to New York to join his brother on a European tour. In early April, they sailed for eight weeks on the merchant ship W.S. Lindsay, arriving in Venice, their port of destination. May spent some time in Switzerland, then passed through Bavaria, down the Rhine to Paris and London, and then home. In the fall of 1862, he entered the Divinity School and graduated in 1865. He began preaching at Yonkers, N.Y., and was invited to settle there. He was ordained in the ministry and installed as pastor of Hope Church. At the time of the report, he was engaged to Harriet Charles Johnson, daughter of the late Philip Johnson of Washington, D.C.
WILLIAM REED BULLARD Immediately after graduating, he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, and entered upon the study of medicine in the office of his uncle, a successful practitioner in that city. Bullard spent two winters in Boston, attending medical lectures at the Massachusetts Medical College, and on March 7, 1860, took a degree of M.D. In 1865, he was studying the subject of cholera and its possible spread to Indianapolis. SAMUEL BRECK PARKMAN After graduation, he read law in Savannah and was admitted to practice in due time. He became a member of the Georgia Historical Society and soon after joined the Savannah troop of cavalry. In the summer of 1860, he was in Europe and spent some time in Switzerland on business. In December 1860, he married Miss Nannie Bierne, a wealthy lady of Virginia. The account of his service in the War of the Rebellion is somewhat indefinite. He entered the service of the Confederate States as a first lieutenant in Read’s Georgia Battery, and he was reported as such at the time of his death, killed at Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862.
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THE AMERICAN SCENE The 1860s and 1870s was a time of artistic experimentation for Winslow Homer. He found his subjects in popular seaside resorts of Massachusetts and New Jersey, in the Adirondack woods and Catskill Mountains in rural New York State, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Homer’s lively depictions of Americans at leisure and children at play were regular themes for the artist. He drew praise and admiration from the general public, and eventually the critics.
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merican art at the beginning of the nineteenth century was just finding its way. Life for nearly all New Englanders centered on family and community, with little or no concern for broadening their reach. Most were farmers who worked, played, learned and worshipped at home. Sophisticated taste for aesthetic pleasures were few outside of major urban centers, such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Much of the art that did exist had strong influences from Ireland, England and Continental Europe where many immigrants and settlers had originated.
207. The Nooning, 1873 (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, August 16, 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/16 x 13-3/4 in. (23.02 x 34.93 cm)
In the years that followed the war, especially in the North, it became a period of unparalleled prosperity. More Americans were beginning to move from rural farmlands to the urban environment of the cities. With newfound wealth in almost every sector of employment and occupation, people enjoyed and engaged in social and cultural enrichments, such as attending music halls and
theater performances, visiting libraries and museums, as well as buying art. For many of the privileged class, there were private schools and centers of influence that made up much of their daily lives and activities. Technological innovations and new inventions gave rise to a new standard of living. Fashion and social events were becoming an important part of mid- and late-nineteenth century life. People had more free time to enjoy outings at country clubs and vacations at mountain or seaside resorts. Horse racing at Saratoga and Monmouth Park became popular during that time. In their idle hours, Americans picnicked in the parks, played croquet, golf and tennis, or simply relaxed, reading novels and poetry. Home construction was on the rise and people were relishing in the luxury of their own landscaped gardens and lawns. Winslow Homer was at the forefront of this new growth in America. He had his finger on the pulse of what was happening in the country, and it was reflected in his art.
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hen Homer was born in 1836, the Hudson River School had already been established. Thomas Cole, who founded the movement in the 1820s, and his followers were all trained in Europe. Their primary influence was the Romantic Movement in England, led by painters J.M.W. Turner and John Martin.1 Artists who wished to realize their aspirations as painters or sculptors went to study in Rome, London or Düsseldorf where they could pursue more expansive ideas and receive formal training. Prior to the nineteenth century, the pinnacle for painters in America was largely limited to portrait work. Landscape art was just beginning to be recognized and appreciated by Americans who had come into a position of wealth. Many of those who bought or commissioned art based their selectivity on European tastes. Hudson River School subject matter was popular in the mid-century with its patriotic spirit that focused on the American landscape. True American art without influences from abroad had not yet been forged and would not be established until the post-Civil War years. There is no preamble to define the precise moment when ‘true’ American art began. Winslow Homer, however, is thought to be one of a handful of artists to have avoided foreign influences and training. Joshua C. Taylor, the director of the National Collection of Fine Art at the Smithsonian Institution (19701981) and American art historian, wrote about a crisis in American art that came to a head in the 1860s.2 The crisis involved finding a national art form for America that supported the nation’s character and composition. The controversy focused on artists personalizing their work by injecting emotion and feeling into the art. Those who did not agree with that premise wanted to simply record nature as God had created it, without any embellishment or attempt to alter or modify nature. The idea of a national art form was to be found not in the artist, but in the subject that the artist rendered so true to nature.
In his poem, “Thanatopsis,” American poet William Cullen Bryant’s words resonate with the literary and visual arts of writers and painters who focused on nature in the early nineteenth century.3 “To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile— Go forth, under the open sky, and list To Nature’s teachings, while from all around— Earth and her waters, and the depths of air— Comes a still voice—” Bryant’s poem was an attempt to express insight and understanding of nature’s extraordinary ability to mitigate sadness, grieving and suffering. The poet suggests that nature can make pain less agonizing. He tells us that, when we begin to worry about death, we should go out, listen and commune with nature. It is the beauty, wonder and peacefulness found in nature that we should seek out in life, and reap its benefits. Although Bryant was not referring to painting, he saw in the Hudson River School a movement that conveyed a superior knowledge and understanding of nature’s benefits through fine art. The artists were mindful of nature’s ability to make one forget their sorrows and to reflect on nature’s beauty. Bryant took a keen interest in the Hudson River School artists and became a patron and long-time friend of the founder, Thomas Cole. Years later, Bryant, in his eulogy for Cole to members of the National Academy of Design, evoked the words of the Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott: “Call it not vain they do not err Who say, that when the poet dies, Mute nature mourns her worshipper, And celebrates his obsequies.”4 Continued on p. 46
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WAITING FOR A BITE
Homer’s most comprehensive work came about in the late 1860s and early 1870s. He began to take into consideration what subjects would make good paintings, not just good illustrations. Sharpshooter, 1863, and The Veteran in a New Field, 1865, are examples of works that he produced both as paintings and engravings. By 1870, he began focusing his attention on children and nature. Fishing was a favorite subject where he was able to capture the isolation and solitude of his subjects, and focus on developing his skill with watercolor as a medium of choice. In making the watercolor Waiting for a Bite [Why Don’t the Suckers Bite?] while he was on vacation in the Adirondacks in the summer of 1874, he discovered the propitious process of
various changes or stages from watercolor to oil to engraving. The final composition in his wood engraving, Waiting for a Bite, remained nearly the same as his first composition, but with changes made to the landscape. In his oil painting, Waiting for a Bite, 1874 (Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens), he eliminated two of the boys, leaving the boy holding a fishing pole isolated in a desolate atmosphere of a near barren landscape. His final work, the wood engraving published in Harper’s Weekly, August 22, 1874, includes all three boys in a landscape that is fertile and lush. The treatment and reworking of this subject strongly demonstrates how wood engraving contributed to Homer’s early development as a painter.
219. Waiting for a Bite Published by Harper’s Weekly, August 22, 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-3/32 x 13-3/4 in. (23.1 x 34.93 cm)
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THE NOONING When making a comparison of Homer’s oil painting The Nooning, 1872, and his wood engraving of the same title, 1873, it is obvious that Homer added narrative detail to the scene prior to its publication in Harper’s Weekly. In the background, laundry hangs on the clothesline, and a woman is seen feeding chickens near the house on the left. The neighbor’s house on the right suggests that this is not a farm scene but, instead, depicts village living, possibly in Hurley, New York. The painting creates a different focus, one that does not include the presence of the dog and other figures, or the clothes on the line. The season
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of the year also differs, showing summer in the painting and fall in the engraving. Close examination of the painting also reveals that Homer had originally included the image of the dog lying on the ground in front of the reclining boy; for some reason, Homer painted out the dog. Over the years, the image of the animal has become visible as the thin overpaint has begun to fade.
207. The Nooning, 1873 Published by Harper’s Weekly, August 16, 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/16 x 13-3/4 in. (23.02 x 34.93 cm)
COUNTRY LIFE IN NIEUW DORP The first settlers of Hurley, New York, chose to build their village, Nieuw Dorp (New Village) at the foot of the Catskill Mountains in what is known as the Esopus Valley. They farmed the fertile flood plains that are still farmed today. Life was simple, and Homer found it to be a very suitable place to identify with the wholesomeness of America; a place built on strong values with virtue. He focused mainly on the youth, their humble surroundings and their promising future. This American treasure was depicted in his many paintings produced there in the 1870s.
Fig. 13. The Nooning, c. 1872
Oil on canvas 13-15/16 x 19-3/4 in. (35.4 x 50.2 cm) Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Hartford, Connecticut The Ella Gallup Summer and Mary Catlin Summer Collection Fund
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STRAWBERRY PICKING NEAR THE SHORELINE Historians often attribute the date of Homer’s first works in the medium of watercolor to the summer of 1873, when he spent several months at the beach resort in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Actually, by that time, Homer was already a highly accomplished watercolorist and had made several important works using the medium as early as 1860. It is not known when he first began to paint with watercolor, but it is highly likely that he used the medium as a youth under the tutelage of his mother, who was an amateur watercolorist. In 1873, Homer created a series of related watercolors using the subjects that he found in Gloucester Harbor. Homer’s Gloucester watercolors were the first to show a transcendent quality with the use of the medium that had not been seen before in his earlier works. Some of his most admired watercolors from this series include Gloucester Harbor, A Clam-bake, and Berry Pickers. The wood engraving Gathering Berries, published by Harper’s Weekly in 1874, was derived from his watercolor Berry Pickers.
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217. Gathering Berries Published by Harper’s Weekly, July 11, 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/8 x 13-1/2 in. (23.18 x 34.29 cm)
GIRL IN A HOMESPUN DRESS The girl wearing a checkered pattern dress and the boy with long sleeves and vest bear a resemblance to the girl wearing a homespun dress and the boy picking berries in the engraving Gathering Berries, 1874. Homespun dresses were frequently worn by young girls whose images appear in nineteenth century tintype photographs. The subject matter documents what had been called the ‘patriotic dress,’ worn by women and young girls, mostly in the South. There is even a song written by Carrie Belle Sinclair titled “The Homespun Dress.” The song is a sentimental Southern poem honoring Confederate women who had to sew their own clothes during the wartime blockade. “The homespun dress is plain, I know, My hat’s palmetto, too; But then it shows what Southern girls For Southern rights will do.” In the North, the homespun dress was also considered a patriotic symbol, mainly in protest of high taxes on European fabrics and textile imports. The dress was a simple design of red, white and blue plaid; it was easy to construct and the weave was similar to the popular Alamance Plaids, one of the signature fabrics produced by Alamance Cotton Mill in Alamance County, North Carolina.
BOY DRESSED IN A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT AND VEST In the early nineteenth century, it was common for children to wear hand-me-down clothes. Rural children often worked on farms and dressed in clothing that suited their role, yet offered warmth in cool weather and comfort in hot summer months. Vests or light jackets were likely choices that might allow them to layer their clothing.
Fig.16-17. Berry Pickers Both: Tintype, c. 1860
1/16th plate 2-1/4 x 1-5/8 in. (5.72 x 4.13 cm) CMPE
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THE DISAPPEARING ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE In the early 1870s, one-room country schools were considered old-fashioned and rapidly becoming obsolete. Homer had an eye for humanizing details and was seeking a way of capturing the essence of what was American in the emergence of the country’s youth. Snap the Whip was a stroke of genius and accorded Homer his ‘grand achievement’ early in his career as a painter and forged a national identity for American art.
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hen Winslow Homer painted Snap the Whip in 1872, he depicted a small group of children playing a game of physical endurance on a school playground in Ulster County, New York, and already knew that the one-room country school was becoming a thing of the past. The location of Homer’s schoolhouse has been a mystery to historians and scholars for almost a century and a half. In 1985, The Metropolitan Museum of Art published American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume II, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845. The documentation provided for Snap the Whip discusses the painting owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and compares it to a larger painting
of the same title, owned by The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. As to the location of Homer’s subject, the review includes the following: “The site represented in Snap the Whip has not been identified. W.J. Whittemore’s ‘Memorandum of a conversation with Bruce Crane, N.A. at the Salmagundi Club, November 17, 1933’ (Long Island Collection of the East Hampton Library) states that Homer painted Snap the Whip in East Hampton. In a note, dated January 1937, Whittemore adds that Crane did not see Homer paint Snap the Whip but the boys who had posed for it told him about it subsequently. Others have suggested that the work was inspired by Homer’s visits to Hurley, New York.”1
209. “Snap-the-Whip” (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, September 20, 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint 13-5/8 x 20-5/8 in. (34.5 x 52.3 cm)
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“They will hand down to posterity pictures of Americans of the nineteenth century, possessing an individuality and marked by the strong idiosyncrasies of our people, not found elsewhere in the whole range of art.”
—unidentified reviewer for the New York Herald, 1872.
Winslow Homer produced a series of works related to children, mostly young boys between the ages of eight to twelve. These images tell a story of rural America, a genre that Homer seemed to favor over boys who lived in city neighborhoods of New York. The country boys projected an innocence and wonder that told America that their kind of experiences would help develop them into young men with homegrown values that the future of this nation needed—a sort of perspective that people have when they use the term ‘Midwestern values’ to describe one’s character. This implies that the country boy might benefit from being reared in the open land, away from city life and its influences, where nature might have a profound effect on one’s thinking and character. Homer was not alone in his thinking or his choices of subject matter. There were other artists drawn to the ‘country boy’ image in the years between the Civil War and the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Eastman Johnson quickly comes to mind with a series of New England farm scenes that include boys at work and play, particularly on Nantucket Island. Homer captured the eye of the critics in such works as Taking Sunflower to Teacher, The Bird-Catchers, Swinging on a Birch-Tree, The Nooning, Waiting for a Bite, and “Snap-the-Whip.”
209. “Snap-the-Whip” Published by Harper’s Weekly, September 20, 1873 Wood engraving on newsprint 13-5/8 x 20-5/8 in. (34.61 x 52.39 cm)
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SNAP THE WHIP This painting is thought to be a study for the larger version of Snap the Whip. It may well have been, but it is much more than that. An infrared study revealed that Homer originally included a view of the mountain and two boys standing near the back wall of the schoolhouse. He later took out the images of the two boys and replaced the mountain view with a landscape looking toward the village of Hurley, revealing the spire of the Hurley Reformed Church. Today, from this vantage point, the village and church spire have been obscured by foliage. Homer had to turn around to look in the opposite direction of the schoolhouse in order to capture the landscape he painted in Snap the Whip. Provenance: Unidentified owner (sold by Clarke’s Art Rooms, New York, January 28, 1915, No. 26 for $275); Ex Collection of Christian A. Zabriskie, New York. Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1950 [Accession No. 50.41]
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Fig. 69. Snap the Whip, 1872 Oil on canvas 12 x 20 in. (30.48 x 50.8 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1950
SNAP THE WHIP This iconic painting is one of Winslow Homer’s most reproduced and written about works in American art. Homer’s Snap the Whip is an early masterpiece. It helped forge a national art for America. With emphasis on the post-Civil War era, the nation was looking to its youth for impending leadership and direction. The painting was exhibited at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition in the fall of 1874, the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1878. Joseph Butler, Jr. purchased the work for The Butler Institute of American Art in 1918. Homer did a spectacular engraving titled “Snap-the-Whip,” published as a double-page spread by Harper’s Weekly in September 1873. It continues today to be Homer’s most popular and successful wood engraving.
Fig. 70. Snap the Whip, 1872
Oil on canvas 22 x 36 in. (55.88 x 91.44 cm) The Butler Institute of American Art Youngstown, Ohio
Provenance: John Sherwood (1873) to Parke Godwin (1879) to George A. Leavitt (1879) to Richard H. Ewart (1911) to William Macbeth (1918) to Joseph Butler, Jr. (1918). Gift to The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
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on the school bench to view the room and the teacher. By the mid-1870s, this style of classroom arrangement with benches and writing tables that faced the walls would have been in the process of change. By the early 1880s, students would sit at desks with chairs that had backs. All of the desks would face the front of the classroom, boys sitting on one side and girls on the other. A diagram of the classroom layout for the Zandhoek School in Hurley [District School No. 4, Hurley] suggests that the individual or dual-desk method of study was in place by 1877-1878.21 This was the period of Horace Mann and the rise of the Common School (1837-1859). Mann was the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education and a prominent figure in blazing a trail for education of children in the United States. Prior to Mann, most schooling was done in the one-room schoolhouse by a single teacher for students of various ages and abilities, using a teaching method that became popular on a global scale during the early nineteenth century. The method was based on the abler pupils being used as ‘helpers’ to the teacher, passing on the information they had learned to other students. Mann proposed a revolutionary new method of teaching that promised to be much more effective and skilled in preparing young students for life in the age of an industrialized world. His proposal was based on a Prussian model of schooling that he had observed and recognized as being ‘age graded’—students were assigned by age to different grades and progressed through them, regardless of aptitude. Together, with the lecture method used in European universities, students were treated more as passive recipients of instruction than as active participants in instructing one another. In Hurley, with the help of the State of New York Board of Education, the school district began the construction of District School No. 4, Hurley, that better suited the new method of teaching. Instead of the traditional one-room school, the new school that opened in 1836 divided the teaching into two
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classrooms, grades 1 through 4 on the lower level, and grades 5 through 8 on the upper level. This is the school that was in operation when Homer visited Hurley in the 1870s and he would have had access to the classroom with the vaulted ceiling. The one-room schoolhouse on Hurley Mountain Road may have still been in operation, but if so, it was in its last years of functioning as a school. In 1872, it may have served the children of the immediate farming area and those who lived north of Esopus Creek, near Eagles Nest. The new school system in New England showed a strong advocacy for moral and civic principles. Teacher institutes and normal schools were established from Concord, Vermont, to the Prairie States. The nation’s teacher-training infrastructure grew extensively following the Civil War. There were new job opportunities for women who filled a void for teaching positions. Generally, elementary schoolteachers were trained at normal schools, while secondary schoolteachers were usually trained at colleges and universities. The new changes brought progress in all areas of education in America with lasting benefits for society and the training for future leaders in all sectors of the nation’s workforce. Reading was at the heart of the educational process and an important means of communication and information sharing. It was considered important to read aloud and to learn to express ideas, thoughts and interpret meaning. These ideas are well expressed in nearly all of Homer’s schoolroom scenes and illustrations.
THE DRAWING LESSON The lesson being taught is twofold: to recognize and learn the names of various geometric shapes and to learn to draw by connecting the lines. The painting could just as well have been titled ‘the drawing lesson.’ Drawing instruction by connecting lines was a popular teaching method for elementary students in the 1870s. Drawing was considered an important tool to enhance the ability of pupils who may one day find employment in the expanding industrial world.
Fig. 89. Blackboard [The Schoolteacher], 1877 Watercolor 19-3/4 x 12-3/4 in. (50.17 x 32.39 cm) Inscribed, l.r. on blackboard: Homer ’77 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., in honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.60.1
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this is true, then he also placed the blond-haired boy, seen reading in the classroom in The Noon Recess, standing in the doorway in School Time.
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t seems that Homer initially painted the school interior in The Country School (signed and dated at the lower right: Winslow Homer—1871). According to inscribed dates, he also painted The Mill, 1871, before he painted the two versions of Snap the Whip the following year. Though it seems highly unlikely, Homer may have painted the following works within the same year: The Noon Recess, 1873, The Fisherman’s Wife, 1873, and The Red School House, 1873. Though the dates are not clear, Country School is thought to have been painted in 1873. Homer’s signature is found on the bench inscribed: Homer 187[3]. It is possible that Homer inscribed the dates on many of these paintings at or close to the same period of time, perhaps as late as 1875, to account for the similarities in the pose and age of the models. Awakening the past can be a daunting task, but sometimes plausible and well worth the attempt. Speculation on a location with just a shred of evidence can be wearisome. The exact location of the schoolhouse has been one of the great mysteries to Winslow Homer scholars and historians. It would have been helpful if Homer had kept a diary or if there was some verifiable account of his travels and field trips that related to his work. The probe was beneficial since the search led to greater clarification of subjects and location of sites in other works by Homer. With the confirmation of the schoolyard venue in the farming community of Hurley, it is possible to imagine the scenes that Homer painted during his time there, including Making Hay, 1872; A Country Store—Getting Weighed, 1871; and The Last Days of Harvest, 1872. Snap the Whip shows schoolmates playing together on the playground with the red schoolhouse in the
background. The location is on Hurley Mountain Road, just a short distance from the Ten Eyck and Newkirk farms. The squatters’ colony on Hurley Mountain, known as Eagles Nest [unrelated to the biographical novel titled Surry of Eagle’s-Nest that Homer illustrated in 1866], was just above the site of the schoolhouse where a single-lane road leads up to the top of the mountain. According to Doreen Lyke, it was during the Civil War that freed or runaway slaves, Native Americans and some Dutch-speaking migrants settled Eagles Nest. The Hurley Mountain people living at Eagles Nest have a unique history but few details are known. Presumably, the children from the community would have attended the one-room schoolhouse at the bottom of the hill on Hurley Mountain Road. With the adoption of Common School Laws of 1812, New York County school districts were required to have a school ‘within walking distance of its population.’26 This might help explain why there would have been an outmoded schoolhouse still operating in Hurley during the 1870s. In 1875, Homer made a watercolor depicting a young negro boy, titled Taking Sunflower to Teacher (Georgia Museum of Art). The watercolor shows a boy wearing tattered clothing and holding a single sunflower to bring to his teacher, obviously someone he held in high esteem. Perhaps more than any other work by Homer during this period, Taking Sunflower to Teacher is telling of the sensitivity that Homer felt and effectively presented through his subject. Homer masterfully conveys a sense of empathy and suggests a feeling of innocence mixed with optimism in the endearing gesture of the young boy who has few possessions of his own. Yet, he is able to overcome his limitations with God-given resources that allow him to pick something he believes to be beautiful to give to his teacher. His mood is not thoughtless; Homer places into the composition a butterfly that rests on the boy’s shoulder, a symbol of his transformation Continued on p. 211
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OFFERING OF GRATITUDE In 1875, Homer created a series that included more than a half dozen watercolors, oil paintings and drawings focused on a negro boy around the age of ten. The boy is dressed in the same clothes in all the works, including Taking Sunflower to Teacher and Contraband. The series provides strong evidence that links the oneroom schoolhouse to the community of Eagles Nest, located just north of Hurley, New York, where Homer painted Snap the Whip, 1872. The negro boy holding the sunflower sits next to a small chalk slate with the initials ‘WH’ and the date ‘1875.’ This single fragment suggests that the boy was a student at the one-room schoolhouse located at the bottom of the mountain, where Hurley Mountain Road and Eagles Nest Road meet.
Fig. 99. Taking Sunflower to Teacher, 1875
Watercolor on paper 7 x 5-7/8 in. (17.78 x 14.92 cm) Georgia Museum of Art University of Georgia Eva Underhill Holbrook Memorial Collection of American Art Gift of Alfred H. Holbrook, GMOA 1945.50
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CHECKLIST WITH INTERPRETIVE NOTES A DIDACTIC APPROACH
Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction – The Engraved Works is devoted solely to the analysis and understanding of Winslow Homer’s graphic oeuvre produced between the years 1856 and 1875. It is the only comprehensive and fully illustrated publication with didactic interpretations of Homer’s graphic art. These works were created for publication in the pictorial press as well as illustrations for books, many related to poetry of the nineteenth century. Included are some photographs, etchings and engravings by other artists that add to the interpretation and understanding of Homer’s work and subject matter.
109. The Approach of the British Pirate “Alabama” (Detail) Published by Harper’s Weekly, April 25, 1863 Wood engraving on newsprint 13-3/4 x 9-1/8 in. (34.93 x 23.18 cm)
© Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions
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APPRENTICE YEARS— LITHOGRAPHS FOR SHEET MUSIC COVERS
Lithography is a process of producing an image on a flat, prepared surface, most commonly Bavarian limestone. The image is drawn with a greasy or oily substance such as a crayon, then etched and stabilized using a solution of gum arabic and nitric acid. When inking the stone using a leather roller, the stone is kept damp. The water repels the ink so that only the etched design accepts the ink for printing. A similar process in modern times is to substitute a substance other than stone, such as aluminum or zinc, with the same end result.
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Katy Darling, c. 1856 Sheet Music Cover Music arranged for the piano (pianoforte) Published by Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston Lithograph on wove paper Drawing by W. Homer for J.H. Bufford Lithography, Boston 13-1/8 x 9-5/8 in. (33.34 x 24.45 cm)
Between 1820 and 1860, an estimated fifteen thousand poems from well-known authors were adapted to music based on the lyrics. Poets who had written verse for music include Thomas Moore, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Herrick, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Milton, Sir Walter Scott, John Greenleaf Whittier and William Wordsworth. The J.H. Bufford Lithography workshop in Boston was responsible for producing a large number of sheet music covers for sale to the general public. “Katy Darling” is an Irish ballad that became popular in America in the late 1840s. The cover illustration is among the first known sheet music covers that Homer produced, at the age of nineteen, for the Bufford Lithography workshop. Homer’s sheet music cover is labeled specifically for pianoforte. There was also sheet music for voice and guitar. The musical score for “Katy Darling” is credited to Vincenzo Bellini and J.G. Whiteman. The ballad is anonymous. The unsigned lithograph shows a man sitting on the ground at the gravesite of his departed love. The words “Katy Darling” are engraved onto the face of the tombstone, on which the man focuses.
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Near the Broken Stile, c. 1856-1857 Sheet Music Cover Music written by Frank Romer Published by Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston Lithograph on wove paper Drawing by W. Homer for J.H. Bufford Lithography, Boston 13-1/8 x 9-5/8 in. (33.34 x 24.45 cm)
Homer created a rural New England scene with a farmhouse in the background and field hands loading a wagon with hay in the distance. The central figures consist of a gentleman and a fashionably dressed young woman standing next to a broken stile (a step or structure which provides people a passage through or over a fence). The lyrics of “Near the Broken Stile” describe the meeting of the young couple and the freshness of the outdoors with sounds of nature and fragrances in the air.
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Minnie Clyde, Kitty Clyde’s Sister, c. 1856-1857 Sheet Music Cover Words and music by L.V.H. Crosby Published by Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston Lithograph on wove paper Drawing by W. Homer for J.H. Bufford Lithography, Boston 13-1/8 x 9-5/8 in. (33.34 x 24.45 cm)
This is one of the last graphic images that Homer produced while serving as an apprentice in the lithography shop of J.H. Bufford in Boston. During his three years of service as an apprentice, Homer made lithograph drawings primarily for sheet music covers that related to Irish, Scottish and American old-time songs (North American Folk Music), popular in the mid-1850s. Some of the songs were nostalgic folklore and performed in theaters and music halls, as well as sung in the home, usually accompanied by piano. The lyrics for “Minnie Clyde, Kitty Clyde’s Sister” describe an Irish lass as “blithe and gay as the robin sings,” who “lived at the foot of the hill . . . by the old mill-side.” Homer depicts young Minnie Clyde as a country maiden posing near a grove of trees, with mountains in the background. Her left hand rests on the shelf of the water well and several animals surround her, including a bird, a dog and a frog. Homer’s drawing gives a subtle description of the song lyrics.
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WOOD ENGRAVINGS
ORGANIZED BY DATE OF PUBLICATION
Between 1857 and 1875, Winslow Homer produced in excess of two hundred and fifty drawings for prints and wood engravings; two hundred and thirty-one of which are illustrated on the following pages with didactic information. Many of these works have been reproduced and included in numerous books and publications, but often with little or no interpretive information. The following illuminated monochromatic graphic works by Winslow Homer represent one-third of the artist’s creative output. Perhaps no other artist in modern times was better prepared to transition from graphic artist to painter. This long preparation period helped to produce one of America’s most popular and beloved artists of all time.
Wood engraving is a printmaking and letterpress printing technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. The artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively low pressure. By contrast, ordinary engraving, like etching, uses a metal plate for the image, and ink fills the valleys, or the removed areas. A wood engraving deteriorates less quickly than a copper-plate engraving, and has a distinctive white-on-black character.
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Captain J. W. Watkins Published by Ballou’s Pictorial, June 6, 1857 Wood engraving on newsprint 4-1/2 x 3-7/8 in. (11.43 x 9.84 cm)
This portrait of Captain Watkins was Homer’s first published wood engraving for the pictorial press. Generally, assignments given to a newly hired artist for Ballou’s Pictorial were limited to obituary notices, at least until the editors decided to ‘take a chance’ on more ambitious assignments. Homer proved himself worthy of more challenging assignments with the sketch he made titled Corner of Winter, Washington and Summer Streets, Boston (Cat. 5). Captain Watkins served as senior merchant commander of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company of New York and was bestowed the title ‘The Commodore.’ The Yankee captain sailed from New York to China and ports in between. In the accompanying notice of Captain Watkin’s obituary, the column read that he “saw a variety of adventures, including conflicts with pirates, and told tales of hardship and peril that could fill a volume.” The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 and given rights to transport mail under U.S. Government contract from the Isthmus of Panama to California. The company initially believed it would be transporting agricultural goods from the West Coast but, just as operations began, gold was discovered in California and business boomed almost from the start. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, the company was a key transporter of goods and men, who played a role in the growth of San Francisco. In the midst of the Civil War, the company transported Chinese immigrants to the West Coast to help build the transcontinental railroad.
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Corner of Winter, Washington and Summer Streets, Boston Published by Ballou’s Pictorial, June 13, 1857 Wood engraving on newsprint 7-1/4 x 9-1/2 in. (18.42 x 24.13 cm)
When Winslow Homer initially sold drawings to Ballou’s Pictorial, the weekly newspaper in Boston, the editor wrote at the first publication that Homer was “a promising young artist of this city, whose works are exceedingly faithful in architectural detail and spirited in character.” The wood engraving, Corner of Winter, Washington and Summer Streets, Boston, displays remarkable maturity for an artist in his early twenties. The scene is brimming with action. Women on street walkways are fashionably dressed, some accompanied by children. Men wear top hats; one looks as though he is waiting for the arrival of his coach. In the center, a ‘run-away’ team of horses race through the intersection. A woman carrying a parasol rushes to get out of the way. A policeman, wearing a badge on his lapel, jumps out toward the coach, pointing a warning to the coachman to slow down or stop the carriage. In the foreground are two dogs. To the left center, an organ grinder, with a monkey on a leash, amuses the children on the walkway. A young girl appears to be playing a musical rasp to accompany the organ grinder. Homer’s engraving is a clever marketing and advertising piece. He creates lots of excitement and activity. Then, he identifies a familiar Boston street and shows storefronts with the names of merchants displayed on awnings. Homer’s engraving served as a sort of ‘promotional’ benefit by identifying businesses that had been regular advertisers with Ballou’s Pictorial. C H E C K L I S T W I T H I N T E R P R E T I V E N OT E S
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Nellie and Her Sisters Hearing the Story About Charlie The Story of Our Darling Nellie Increase Niles Tarbox Published by Henry Hoyt, Boston, 1858 Wood engraving on wove 3-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. (8.89 x 6.35 cm)
The Story of Our Darling Nellie was written and published by the Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox as a memorial tribute to his two children, Nellie and her brother, Charlie, who both died at an early age. The mortality rate of childhood death from tuberculosis, cholera, scarlet fever and typhoid fever was very high. Nellie was an enlightened child who made an enormous impact on her family and, through her father’s efforts, inspired many people, some of whom had experienced similar family tragedies.
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Nellie Giving a Birthday Party for Her Sisters The Story of Our Darling Nellie Increase Niles Tarbox Published by Henry Hoyt, Boston, 1858 Wood engraving on wove 3-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. (8.89 x 6.35 cm)
Homer modeled the image of young Nellie from a photograph. He shows her wearing the same dress in all of the illustrations, with the added embellishment of polka dots in the scene where Nellie is giving a birthday party for her sisters.
20.
Nellie Calling the Old Black Hen The Story of Our Darling Nellie Increase Niles Tarbox Published by Henry Hoyt, Boston, 1858 Wood engraving on wove 3-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. (8.89 x 6.35 cm)
21. Spring in the City Published by Harper’s Weekly, April 17, 1858 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/8 x 13-3/4 in. (23.18 x 34.93 cm) Homer’s engraving, Spring in the City, shows a crowd of shoppers in front of the ‘Laces & Fancy Goods’ store. Gentlemen are smartly dressed, wearing top hats, and several women hold parasols for protection from the sun. A young girl, on the far right, offers a bouquet of flowers to a gentleman who seems disinterested. A newspaper boy, carrying a copy of Harper’s Weekly under his left arm, runs out into the street capturing the viewer’s attention. The department store was a new concept that changed the way people shopped in urban America. The first department store, built by Alexander Turney Stewart, was ‘The Marble Palace.’ It was located on Broadway between Chambers and Reade Streets in New York. In 1862, Stewart opened another department store on a full city block, with eight floors and nineteen departments, offering everything from dresses to furniture. Lord & Taylor soon began to compete with Stewart, as well as Macy’s, that followed in expanding on the new concept. Other cities throughout the world copied the New York shopping model, including Chicago, San Francisco, London and Milan. In addition, GUM’s opened in Moscow in 1893. Modern merchandising had come alive in keeping with the progress of the fast-growing global industrial and economic boom of the Gilded Age.
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The Veteran in a New Field Published by Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, July 13, 1867 Wood engraving on newsprint 4-3/16 x 6-1/4 in. (10.64 x 15.88 cm)
Homer first produced The Veteran in a New Field as an oil painting just four or five months after the end of the Civil War. He allowed himself little time to contemplate the effects of the war and his artistic response. The painting was exhibited at the Annual Exhibition Artists’ Fund Society, New York, in November 1865, just seven months after the surrender of the Confederacy. The Veteran in a New Field is the first work in which Homer deliberately changed the composition and details of accuracy in favor of a larger meaning, expressed with a symbolic use of the scythe. Although the proper tool for cutting wheat would have been a cradled scythe, he instead places a single blade scythe in the hands of the farmer. Homer evokes Kronos (Cronus), the ancient Greek god of harvest, as well as the Grim Reaper, both often depicted with a sickle or scythe. Homer’s message is clear. The veteran, seen peacefully harvesting grain, had previously been a reluctant harvester of men.
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The Bird-Catchers Our Young Folks Published by Ticknor and Fields, Boston, August 1867 Wood engraving on wove 3-11/16 x 5-15/16 in. (9.37 x 15.08 cm)
Homer’s drawing The Bird-Catchers is an early masterpiece. A landscape of horizontal bands creates an illusion of pictorial space that draws the eye from the subtle activities of the children, fascinated with their captives, to the trees and barns in the distance. Art collector Leo Stein made reference to Homer’s genius in creating such an image: “There is prevalently, as in all great artists, a grip upon the form strong enough to hold the mind of the observer down to the actualities presented.” Winslow Homer historian, David Tatham, explains that the way the poet, Richard Henry Stoddard, and the drawing made by Homer came together was a reversal of the usual sequence. Homer had sold five drawings of children to the publisher Ticknor and Fields before going on his year-long stay in France in late 1866. The publisher then sought writers to pen a poem or rhyme to fit the subject of each drawing. John T. Trowbridge provided the verse for three of the drawings: Watching the Crows, Green Apples, and The Strawberry Bed. Lucy Larcom responded with a poem for Swinging on a Birch-Tree, and Stoddard created verse to fit The Bird-Catchers. All three poets were successful in their efforts to complement the images produced by Homer.
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A Parisian Ball—Dancing at the Mabille, Paris Published by Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1867 Wood engraving on newsprint 9-1/8 x 13-3/4 in. (23.18 x 34.93 cm)
The Bal Mabille, also known as Jardin Mabille and Mabille Gardens, was a fashionable open-air dance establishment that opened in 1831 by the renowned dance instructor Monsieur Mabille. In 1844, Mabille and his sons decided to refurbish the property, creating an enchanted garden with pathways, elaborate landscaping, imitation palm trees and shrubs, an art gallery and grotto. The landscape was illuminated at night with three thousand gas lamps, colorful glass globes, and strings of filament lights suspended between the trees. The Bal Mabille was a huge tourist draw for international visitors seeking excitement and exotic entertainment that was not readily available in their homelands. Homer’s engraving shows a group of mostly male spectators watching the high kicks of the dancers in the foreground. A group of three sheiks is seen at the right between the two women shown gathering their skirts, moves that indicate their preparation to join in the dancing.
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A Paris Sketch—Scene in the Champs Élysées Artist unknown (initials ‘WK’ lower left) Published by Harper’s Weekly, August 22, 1874 Wood engraving on newsprint 7 x 10 in. (17.78 x 25.4 cm)
Carousels, commonly called merry-go-rounds, had become a popular attraction at amusement parks and fairs in Germany, England and France, followed by America in the late 1870s. Wooden animals and chariots were fixed to a circular apparatus that would suspend from a central pole and rotate. The carousels were called ‘dobbies’ and were operated manually by an attendant or pulled by ponies. In 1844, Monsieur Mabille and his sons decided to make improvements to the Bal Mabille, the fashionable and popular openair dance establishment that attracted colorful attention at its balls on Saturday nights. The new additions to the gardens included a Chinese pavilion and a merry-go-round similar to the vintage carousel seen in this engraving.
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