Winslow Homer

TH E %ULF STREAM TH E METROP OLITAN MUSEUM O F A RT

n n d ted H 1 9 nc s h i h inc s w . Sig ed a d a ; omer , 8 9 . Can vas , i he g , he ide WINSLOW HOMER

%ENYON Cox

NEW YOR% PRIVATELY PRINTED

MCM% IV ”MO

Co r h 1 1 py ig t 9 4.

Frederic Fairchdd Sh erman TO ITS F I RST READ ER PH IL I P LITTELL W H OSE CRITIC I SM AND AD VICE ON MATTERS O E STYLE W ERE I NVALUAB LE TO M E H B % F F T I S O O I S A ECTI ONATELY INSCRIB ED .

PREFACE

' For the facts and dates ofHomer s life Iam indebt ed to “The Life and Works ofWinslow Homer by ll D Mifﬂin : Wi iam Howe ownes , Houghton Com

1 1 1 . pany , 9 From this book . which I have accepted th e nl sub edt as o y authority on the j . I have also bor ' “ rowed a few quotations from John W . Beatty s In % ’ ro r f t ducfto y Note and rom Homer s own letters . ’ For the interpretation I have put upon the facts , ' and for the attempt at a critical estimate of Homer s

. t is art , I alone am responsible Upon the validi y ofth estimate my little book must depend for its excuse for being . But whil e the opin ions expressed are my own they must Often coincide with those expressed by r s did : other w iter . Ifthey not the book might be orig inal but would almost certainly be erroneous . I think s hi I have aid not ng because others have said it , but I have not had the vanity to refrain from saying any: s thing becau e it had been already said , or to attempt novelty at the possible cost oftruth .

x %ENYON Co .

ILLUSTRATIO NS

The Gulf Stream Fron tispiece h l 2 New England Country Sc oo Page 4, The Berry Pickers 24 A Voice from the Cliff 3 2 The West Wind 3 2 The Herring Net Hound and Hunter ff s‘t High Cli . Coa ofMaine A Summer Night The Fox Hunt The Lookout Early Morning After Storm at

WINSLOW H O MER

WINSLOW HO MER

PART O NE HE painters of America who have gained a certain deﬁniten ess and per: — man en ce ofreputation those whose names are as well known to dealers and c oll edtors as are the names of leading foreign masters and whose pictures have an established and increasing commer= Cial — i i value belong . almost w thout except on , to the generation which reached its majority shortly before r the Civil War . The centu y and a halfofpainting in America may be roughly divided in to three periods ’ al ﬁr st s ofapproximately equ length . The ofour paint ers to attain any considerable eminence were purely

English in origin and in training , and the earliest of st them were . on the whole , the be ; so that the first period may be called that ofthe decline ofthe English school inAmerica . The second periodwas that ofthe slow evolution ofa native school , and this school was onthe verge ofits highest achievementwhen the third or present period began ; the period ofa new foreign — — in fluen c e mainly French and ofthe effort to adapt a technic learned in the schools ofcontinental Europe to the expression ofAmerican thought and American feeling . We cannot yet tell how many ofour paint I I ers belonging wholly to this last period may achieve s lr a la ting fame . Those who seem a eady to have o f o f r achieved it are the time transition , and thei work marks the culmination ofthe native school and f fl f the beginning o the new in uence rom abroad . f Their birth dates all very near together . The old of ll 1 822 est them , Fu er and Hunt , were born in and i l 1 2 1 82 res edt ve m 8 . 4 p y, and Inness ca e in 5 Then , f st 1 8 a ter a gap ofnine years , we have Whi ler in 34 , LaFar e 1 8 1 8 6 g in 35 and , in the one year 3 , Homer M artin W an t Vedder sub edt , y , , and the j ofthis book,

Winslow Homer . The mere list ofnames is enough to Show the double nature ofthe work accomplished by the men ofthis generation . At the outset we have t o f Cou= the sharp contrast be ween Hunt, the pupil f o f ll ture and the riend Mi et , a teacher and a great ﬂ ff t s a in uence if a somewhat ine ec ual arti t , m king ‘ m 1 8 his 1 8 s hi self, from 55 to death in 79 , the apo tle of ff ’ that Barbizon school which was to a ect , in greater f ’ orless degree , so many others o the group ; and Fuller , his Deerﬁeld f and emer working byhimselfon arm , g ing from Obscurity in 1 876 as the artistic contempo ’ rary of Hunt s pupils and of the young men whom ’ Hunt s preaching had sent to Paris for their education . s t And the same contra t is repea ed , in even sharper st form , between Whi ler and Homer; between the brilliant cosmopolitan wh o spent but a few years of his infancy and a few more ofhis youth in his own ' u u ; co ntry , and the recl se of Prout s Neck between m st the dainty sy phoni , whose art is American only

1 2 I because t is not quite English and not quite French , and the Sturdy realist who has given us the mos’t ’ is s : purely native work, as it perhaps the mo t power

ﬁil i n . , yet produced America Winslow Homer came of pure New England S di c f tock , being re tly descended rom one Captain John Homer who sailed from Englan d in his own ’ ship and settled in Boston in the middle o f the seven

teen th . v century His father Charles Sa age Homer , ’ In s was a hardware merchant Bo ton , where Wins r 2 th 1 8 6 low was born on Februa y 4 , 3 , and his moth fr er , Henrietta Maria Benson , came om Bucksport , f Maine , a town named a ter her maternal grandfather “ She i s said to have had a pretty talent for painting fl I I : owers n watercolors , and her son may have n h rit d e e his artistic proclivities from her . There were probably other seafaring men than the firSt Capt ’ s ‘ John among the Homer ance try , and the artist s uncle , James Homer owned a barque and cruised to the West Indies . We cannot doubt that the love of salt water was even more deeply ingrained in Win: wa s slow Homer than the love ofart , though it not to f n show itsel u til rather late in life . 1 8 2 In 4 , when Homer was six years old , the family removed to Cambridge , and there his boyhood was S l spent . There was til much of the country vill age his two about Cambridge , and Homer and brothers if o f E lived the healthy l e rural New ngland , fishing , i boat ng , swimming , playing rough games and going ’ to school . An interesting memorial of this time is

1 3 ' s’ n Homer s earliest exi ti g drawing , reproduced in ' “ William Howe Down es s Life and Works o f the s arti t , under the title of The Beetle and the Wedge . It represents Winslow' s elder brother Charles and his cousin George Benson holding the younger broth: er , Arthur , spread eagle fashion by the arms and legs and about to swing hi s weight violently against the rear of another innocent youngster squatting on all fours in the grass . In the lives of artists one expedts as a matter of o f I s course , tales precocious talent, but t is eldom that such evidence of their veracity can be brought for: d f ward . Here is a boy ofeleven rawing rom life , or f rom memory ofpersonal observation , a composition of four ﬁgures in complicated foreshortenings ; indi cating their several adtion s and expressions with ad s mirable truth and economy ; and, with a few line s and scratches of shade , placing them in their etting n of sunlit pasture and dista t hillside . Ofcourse the i draw ng is but a sketch and, equally of course , the ability to make such a sketch does not imply that of carrying it farther . It was long before Homer coul d put into the form ofa deﬁnite and completed work of is art what here suggested , but as a sketch , as a rapid s notation ofthe essentials ofsomething seen , it i such s’t as Homer , or any other arti , might , at any period

i . ofhis career , have been will ng to sign The essential ’ st an d : Winslow Homer , the ma er of weight move

is . ment , already here in implication Ifmany ofthe heap of yo uthﬁi l drawings which the artist pre:

I 4

o f if nl is no importance , and that , o y one is a trained

: speaker , it matters little whether or not one has any illuStrato r muSt thing to say . The always say some m l . uSt thing , whether he says it wel or ill He make icfture f ct his p , always , and a resh pi ure each time , and his success will depend on the in tereStof the public in hi s f o f what he does , not on the approval by ellows ' the way in which he does it . Homer s work in black for moSt o f and white was , the part , independent any written text and he seems , generally , to have chosen

sub ecfts for . his j himself They are very varied and , o f as illuStrator ex eri in the course his work an , he p men ted with alm o St every kind o f subjecft he after wards made hi s own as well as with many that he did never rendered in color . He not attempt the ideal hi or the romantic , but anyt ng that he could see he wa s ready to draw, dealing impartially with town d and with country , and trying his hand at well ressed ladies and gentlemen as at barefoot boys and sunbon His Stud1es his ﬁrSt n eted . girls ﬁrst Adirondack ,

= hi s firSt e : sea shore pieces , de p sea scenes , appeared in black and white . ' O f the merit of Homer s drawings for ill uStration it is difficult to judge . American wood engraving was not , in those days , the fine art that it afterwards became , and the blocks on which he worked were cut with a mechanical and somewhat dismal monot: is in Stan ces ony . It only in the where a prelimin ary water color sketch exiSts that we can judge how much ofbeauty and o f ch aradter wa s sacrificed in re :

1 6 ’ r ion If his c p o dudt . original drawings dire t upon the wood have l o Stas much in the cutting they muSthave

been far better th an we shall ever know . But what artiStiC ever their value , or lack of it , they were of incalculable importance as a training o f the observer

and the recorder o f observations that Homer was . 1 8 In 59 Homer came to New York , and this city t : remainedhishome , whenhe was at home , for wenty for ﬁve years . Here he attended a time the night Class o f al D the Nation Academy of esign , and had lessons , for once aweek , on Saturdays , a month , from a French ar ti nl Stnamed Rondel . They were the o y painting an d o f lessons he ever had , in the catalogue the Paris “ Exposition of 1 900 he duly appears as eleve d e F red ' ” erick Rond el ; for in French catalogues one muStbe a pupil ofsome one . He appears for the ﬁrst time as an hi 1 860 exhibitor at the Academy ex bition of , with a drawing ofSkating in Central Park ; probably a Study “ o f of illuStratio n s for, or a replica , one his for Harp ’ er s Weekly . In 1 86 1 Homer seems to have gone to Washing L ’ ton to make drawings of incoln s inauguration , and in the next year he was certainly special artiSt for “ ’ % ' Harper s Weekly with McCl ellan s army in the

Peninsula . He was probably not more than three months at the front , but his experience during that time muSthave suppliedhim with many more sketch : es and Studies than are represented in the drawings he S t sent home , and from these tudies he took the subjec s “ ’ ﬁr ’ St t s . v 1 862 ofhis pic ure In No ember of , Harper s

I 7 Weekly published hi s Sharpshooter on Picket Duty “ f n . E . as rom a pai ting by W Homer , sq , and this , ﬁrSt hi s f R the of works in oil , was ollowed by ations , La St Home , Sweet Home , and The Goose at York town . The two latter were exhibited in the Nation f 1 86 1 al o 86 . Academy exhibition 3 , and in 4 Homer sent to th e Academy In Front of the Guar d House and The Briarwood Pipe and was promptly el edted an Associate . The nextyear he exhibitedThe Bright Side and two other pidtures and was made a full Aca: demician eledtion , though this is generally attributed to the reputation of Prisoners from the Front , then h under way but not ready for ex ibition . It appeared 1 866 artiStwa s t at the Academy in , when the thir y o f idtures years old , and is one a series ofimportant p that mark o f the decades o f his life in a curious man: ner . This one may be said to announce the deﬁnite ’ conclusion ofhis prentice years . They hadbeen very a his short , nd he was an Academician before any of eledted group except Vedder , who was in the same almo St a : year , the author of an sens tionally success ful t artiSt pic ure , and an whose work sold readily w wi f at such prices as ere then current , all thin our years from the beginning ofhis fi rStpainting . There is somethin g o f a myStery about the present ownership ofPrisoners from the Front and it does not appear to have been shown in public since the sale of the John Taylor John Ston c oll edtion in 1 876 . It made artiSts a deep impression at the time , not less upon the

1 8 6 . than upon the cr1tic s and the public . In 7 Prof

1 8 ll John F . Weir ca ed it a unique work in American art“ and thought it better than anything Homer had

1n I s La Far e uSt : done the ntervening year , and g , j be “ hi s I fore death , wrote of t as a marvelous painting , i 1 n marvelous n every way, but especially the grasp “ all ofthe moment . Was it not , above , to this grasp ofthe moment that it owed its success ? In technical merit it can hardly be greatly superior to The Bright s St ll Side , which is as much as to ay that it must be i hi i r decidedly primitive . T s latter p dtu e represents a group of negro teamSters basking in the sun outside

: their tent . A certain piquancy is given to the com position by the placing of the head looking out from ten t:fl a s u 13 the p above the lo ngers , but that the only i in t r I fh : touch ofpurely art Stic e eSt. The drawing S su v : cient , no more ; the color brown and hea y ; the hand ’ r : ling entirely without charm . The picture is in te eSt ing ﬁ om its evident truth ofobservation in ch aradter — ill uStrative li and attitude that is , for its purely qua — ty but as pain ting it hardl y exiSts . Given this same ill uStrative sub edt in tereStin value , and a j so g to the 1 866 f public of as that ofthe Prisoners rom the Front , and we may account for the success of that pictur e without imagining it to have been much better paint hi ed than the other works oft s time . They are works from which Homer ’ s future coul d scarce have been ’ an d predicted , they would be already forgotten had not that future brought forth things o f very different a l and v St y greater quality .

1 9 PART TW O N spite of his precocious boyhood and his rapid ’ a s artiSt success as a young man , Homer s talent an

f : ripened slowly . An Academician be ore he was thir t t firSt hi s y, he was for y when he produced the of pic s o f firSt tures which ha something greatness in it , the which is admirable in itselfrather than in tereStin g as marking a Stage o fprogress ; he was nearly fiftybefore ’ he began the series o f pictures dealing with the life of sailors and fishermen which showed him defin itely as a great figure painter and an interpreter ofhuman: ity; and he was sixty when he painted one ofthe l aSt fif o reateSt . t f ur and g ofthem Finally, he was y when firSt idtures f he painted the ofthose p ofsur and shore , marines without figures or with figures ofminor im beSt w portance , by which he is kno n to the great pub lic ; and ten or twelve years older when some o f the beSt ofthem were produced . Ifhe had died at forty he would not now be considered a painter ofany im: f portance . Ifhe had died at fi ty he would be remem bered as an artist ofgreat promise and a s the author ofa few pictures in which promise had become per seven t four forman ce . It is because he lived to be y that n his career is the great and rounded whole we k ow . There were reasons internal as well as external for s o f mo St thi slowness development , but the important

al . reasons were intern It was , in a sense , the very ’ S ch aradter turdiness and independence of Homer s , and the clearness o f his vision ofwhat he wanted to

20 do , that kept him so long learning to do it . We have was wi seen how little the formal training he had , th what a slender equipment ofprevious study he set out to express himselfin paint , and howhis earliest works are saved from utter in signific an ce only by his native f gi t of observation , the manner of expression being i h . worse t an negl gible Now there were , even in the wi sixties , and even for a man th his living to earn by ll for i ustration or other hack work , opportunities a fuller education in th e technic of his profession than Homer chose to give himself; and if he had as little i was a s such education as a Chester Hard ng , it not, in ’ Harding s case , because there was none to be had , but because he would not have it . He was never docile f enough to learn rom others . While he was still a lithographer ' s apprentice in Boston he had said to f “ s Foxcro tCole , ifa man wants to be an artist he mu t c % never look at pi tures , and in that faith he lived and his : died . At no time of career did he show much in terestin the work ofother men or betray any need of that give and take ofdiscussion which forms what is as st criti known an arti ic atmosphere , or ofthat cism from those who know without which even a D onatello was afraid ofdeterioration . He stood alone w s f hi s a . t and su ficient to mself When , after his fir successes , he felt that he had earned a trip abroad , he 1 86 went to Paris , in 7 , and spent ten months in that i s capital , but he did none ofthe th ng there that almost any other young artist would have done . He did not go into the schools , he did not copy old or modern

21 st of ma ers , he did not settle in any the artistic colo nies or consort much with other artists ; and if he ’ looked at the iictures in the great gall eries his subses sliows o f quent work no evidence it . He came back ll r as he went , and two or three i ust ations of Parisian dance halls or ofcopyists at work in the Louvre and the title Picardie in the Academy catalogue of 1 868 are the only things to remind us that he was ever in

France .

The choice may have been right for Homer , but it was a choice that carried its penalties with it . A hi painter has , indeed , other t ngs to do than merely to f learn to paint , but he has , a ter all , to learn to paint; ' and to in sifi on discovering the way for one s self is ’ often to take the longest road to one s destination . i f for his Homer did , in t me , learn to paint su ficiently u p rpose , and though his work in oils always lacked the highest technical distinction it attained to a free: dom andpower ofexpressionwhichfitteditadmirably hi to hi s needs . But t s evolution ofan adequate method took a very long time , and for the next dozen years the interest in his pictures is rather inhis experimental searching for the subjects that suited him than in any greatly increased mastery in his rendering ofthe sub jects he selected . Had Homer been actuated mainly by commercial considerations he might well have rested where he a s st s was , nd have gone on , for ome years at lea , paint ing military subjects . What he did was the contrary i f v ofthis , and Pr soners rom the Front appears to ha e

as o f st observed to degrees light and dark , and ca s so l shadows true in shape , as to be real , hard , g ittering i f t ’ sunl ght . It is di ficul to imagine anyone s loving the c c pi ture very much , but no one can help respe ting it . The Country School is a very different roduction ’ — a sketch rather than a finished picture tfie small fig u so res slightly painted as to be transparent in places , allowing the benches to be seen through them—but a sketch possessing a breadth oftone and a charm o f ’ handling exceptional in Homer s work . But for the s for hi ubject , it might almost pass an early W stler .

Already, in such a work as Snap the Whip , Homer is beginning to make us feel the glory ofout o f ful doors , but to express it ly he needed a larger and f rougher sort ofli e to paint , as well as a more mature 1 manner ofpainting it . In 873 he spent a summer on in Ten Pound Island Gloucester Harbor, the imme diate result ofwhichwas some charming watercolors ’

Mrs . of coast scenes , including Lawson Valentine s l f for de ight ul Berry Pickers , and in the f rst . o ﬁ time , to the Adirondacks Here , in the life u wa s h nters and g uides , matter to his mind , and his i was f s t. 1 8 6 tyle rose with In 7 , when he orty years l hi s old , he painted the ﬁrst of what may be ca led

st i . ma erpieces , The Two Gu des The brown under is d painting still present , but the han ling is larger and f ‘ct reer , with a dire ness and suppleness comparable

s to that of his later work . On a mountain ridge over grown with scrubby bushes stand the guides , axes in hand , one , an old man with long gray beard , point

24 NEW ENGLAND COUNTRY SCHOOL

COLLECTION OF MR . FREDERIC FAIRCHILD SHERMAN

n at H 18 . Canvas nc s nc s w Si ed and d ed ; omer 72 , i he high , i he ide . g ,

THE B ERRY PIC% ERS %Water - Col or% THE PULSIFER COLLECTION 1 n an at H ul 18 3 . P a r nc s 1 7 3 nc s w . Sig ed d d ed ; omer , J y p e , i he high , i he ide A, rlt. But early

1 h zr of tin g i t. In 873 e Poun Islan d in Glouc ester

Pickers and ini h tﬁil Berry ,

h rs and u des was ma m to his g i , 0 O %

ro se m th i t. In :

ing out some landmark to hi s taller and younger com is ll rade . Beyond the foreground ridge a va ey filled with fleecy cloud that rises in ragged shapes against i fl the higher and more d stant peak , and oats away to dissipate itself in the bright sunshine of a summer f morning . The picture is ull ofthe joy of high places hi and the splendor offine weather . Not ng else that I know of in pictorial art so perfectly expresses the ’ spirit ofShakespeare s wonderful image : —“Andjocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops . r More than once , in later yea s , Homer reverted to the camp life ofthe Adirondacks for his subjects but , ﬁr r to my mind , this st of the Adi ondack series re for n st . u mains the ﬁne of all Indeed it was , long , matched in its power by anything else he did . The i year that it was pa nted , harking back to The Bright

Side ofeleven years earlier , he went to Petersburg ,

Virginia , to study the negroes again , and in that and the next year or two he painted The Visit from the O ld Mistress , The Carnival , and several other sub ects ct j ofNegro life ; sober and excellent genre pi ures , “ “ but certainly without the Homeric lift o f his great successes . Then he is at Houghton Farm , trying f again , and again ailing , to ﬁnd inspiration in the life ofthe American farmer ; or at Gloucester and An n iss s ik quam , doing Schooner at Anchor and the l e , but not yet feeling , or not rendering , the grandeur ofthe ll “ ’ “ sea . His i ustrations for Harper s ceased to appear a year before The Two Guides was painted ; his occa

25 sion al book illustrations disappear after 1 880 ; and in 1 88 1 wa s so began that experience which , in many ” his ways , decisive for him, two years stay among the ﬁsh erfolk of T n emo uth n ear s t E . y , Newca le , in ngland For even this most native o f American artists was ﬂ f nl was deeply in uenced by a oreign sojourn , o y it a o f u ff ct new view nat re that a e ed him , not a new in

spiration from art . In this English fishing town hi ' own peculiar range of subjects was revealed to h here he first felt to the full the romance o f the sea and o f those who go down to the sea in ships : Here he st st st fir felt the maje y of the breakers , the irresi ible

might ofthe surf. Here he painted hi s ﬁrst scenes o f wr f eck and acquired that sense , which never le t him ,

o f o f . the perils the deep And in Tynemouth , also , f hi s f x ct o . he found , or per e ed , means e pression The st ft his work he did during his ay there , and a er re is i fr h hi f turn , d stinguished om t at w ch went be ore not merely by a greater dr amatic intensity and a f n broader and more profound eeling , but by striki g

alterations o f style . The ﬁrst and most important ofthe effects of the ’ Tynemouth visit upon Homer s style is the awak en in o f t g in him of a sense human beau y and , par f ticul arl o f o . y, the beauty womanhood Hitherto he had made some unconvincing attempts at ber un c ed di la es in bustles and chignons , and had drawn , with f much more eeling and veracity , certain slim Yankee

girls in limp skirts and gingham sunbonnets . Now for ﬁsh he saw the ﬁrst time , in these robust English

l st happi y the line ofthe out retched arms , as it gained in height and dignity by the addition o f the lower - part ofthe figures . Both are admirable compositions , but the earlier seems to me the finer ofthe two . Another important element of Homer’ s art that seems to have come from his studies on the shore of the North Sea is his feelin g for the beauty ofatmos = h ere the hr is p , ens ouding mystery ofair that charged o f fo mi i with moisture , the poetry g and st . His earl er workswere painted in the clear , sharp air ofhis native E st r full New ngland and , for the mo pa t , in sunlig ht , and everything stands out in them hard edged and im placably revealed . In The Two Guides this glittering x f mountain clearness is e hilarating , but o tener it is in rather distressing its explicitness . At Tynemouth he learned to envelop his figures in e ecy softness and to place hi s landscape in the sky rather than in front hi o f t of it . Somet ng the old hardness re urns in one ’ l in ten sis or two ofhis later pictures , usua ly where it ct n substro fies the sentiment of the subje , and i his p ical scenes he combines hi s old love of sunlight with that fullness ofcolor which alone makes intensity of light bearable an d beautiful ; but his new sense ofthe n is envelopi g atmosphere a permanent acquisition , without which the creation of his great sea dramas would hardly have been possible . These new and important elements of Homer ' s t art, brought with them , of necessi y, a new system of coloring and a new handl ing of material . The work he did during the two years he spent in Tyne :

28 mouth was entirely in watercolor so that the changes brought about in his method ofpainting in oil must be looked for in the pictures painted immediately after c his return to America . In these pi tures the brown unders ain tin p g has entirely disappeared , the general an d is tone becoming cool silvery, while the paint laid f on directly with a ree an d full brush . It is hence c forth modern painting that Homer pra tises , marked by nothing ofth e old timidity and thinness and show: ing , on the other hand , no search for technical niceties hi s ct o f any kind . He attacks subje with forthright simplicity and sincerity , caring only for the truth of his representation and scarcely at all fo r the manner hi s t st o f ofit, and in this art is charac eri ic his time o f that latter end ofthe nineteenth century in which a s all the best ofit w produced . n deﬁ Thus , in matter and in man er , Homer has i l n te f . f all y ound himself A ter this time , though not hi s o f tu work is equal value , it is all ma re work ; all marked with the characteristics that hi s name c all s all up for us ; sealed with his seal . And though he is f never to cease rom experimenting , from going aﬁeld after new subjects and making new and surprising c discoveries , yet he shows us only new aspe ts ofone t clear and decided personali y. We have no longer to deal with foreshadowi ngs ofthe Winslow Homer that is to be , but with varying manifestations ofthe

Winslow Homer that is .

29 PART THREE

IE to signalize his arrival at the ﬁi ll maturity of al f 1 884 : his t ent , Homer le t New York in , tak with him f ing two unﬁnished canvases , The Li e Line hi f ' and Undertow, and settled msel at Prout s Neck , where he wa s farther removed than ever before from f all extraneous artistic in luences . There he made his o f hi s if home for the rest l e , and there he painted all ’ those pictures o f his later years which have assured his fame . Prout’ s Neck is a rocky promontory on the east o f side of Saco Bay in the town Scarboro , Maine . ' ‘ What it is like no admirer o f Homer s pictur es needs his to be told but , during much of life there , it was not so lonely a place as one would be tempted to im d agine . Arthur B . Homer had iscovered the point in 1 875 and regul arly spent hi s summers there from that year . He was joined , later , by his father and his brother Charles , and Winslow had visited them there more than once before he decided to build a cot tage and studio and make it his permanent residence . “ We are told that the Homers bought up most ofth e fr land on the water ont, and set out to develop the ” a s place systematically a summer resort, with the ' ul : res t that , before the artist s death , there were sixty l seven houses on the neck and seven h o te s . In such a place he could not lead quite the h ermitslike life h as him was effec which legend given , but he pretty tuall f f y secluded rom pro essional companionship , and

30 as he grew older fewer people o f any sort were ad i al i f r him mitted h s . o to studio He lived one , cook ng f is l sel and , it said, cooking extremely wel and em ‘ ploying only a man who came in each morn 1n g to do as of o f the chores . He w fond a certain amount man st ll uallabor , building one wa s , dog houses and the like , and cultivating an old fashioned flower and vegetable garden . At one time he even attempted to grow and cure his own tobacco and to roll his own cigars . 1s f s There nothing surprising in the a t that Homer , who was now becoming more and more deﬁnitely a of sea his painter the , should have chosen for summer home a place where h e ‘ c ould live continuall y with his chosen subject ; but al most any other man woul d have retained a studio in the city for those months ’ when even he foun d the climate o f Prout s Neck too its s rigorous and solitude too absolute . Almo t any other man woul d have taken some pains to maintain his relationship with his brother artists and to keep

: in touch with what they were doing . It is charac teristic ofHomer that when he retired to his sea s sh ore him 1 studio he shut the door after . About 888 he ceased to contribute volun tarily to the exhibitions or i even to pay much attention to invitat ons to exhibit , an d most o f hi s pictures shown after that date were f ’ borrowed rom owners or dealers . Wh en Prout s Neck became uninhabitable he went south to Florida or the Bahamas and ﬁlled his portfolioswith the won derﬁi l watercolor sketches we know , and by March

as : he w back again in Maine . Except for rare appear

3 1 an ces . on e s r , or two ofthem for the purpo e ofse ving

on the juries of important exhibitions , his fellows knew him no more ; and many of his younger cons

temporaries , myself among the number , never so much as saw the man . ’ Homer s ﬁr st voyage to Nassau and Cuba took

i o f 1 8 5 wo : 8 6 , t place in the w nter ‘ 5 though the import of t ant oil paintings West Indian subjec s , The Gulf — : Stream and Search Light Santiago , were not fin D ish ed 1 8 . u also hi s until 99 ring these later years , , his trips to the Adirondackswere repeated , and search for study combined with recreation took him into o f ctu Canada , but the greater number his pi res , exclu s dee zsea t sive , ofcourse , ofhi p subjec s , were painted ' th e : not only in but of Prout s Neck , and place is in delibly associated with his name . The two pictures Homer took with him to Prout' s 1 88 Neck had been conceived in 3 at Atlantic City , where he had gone especiall y to study the subject of The Life Line and where he witnessed the rescue f i rom drown ng which suggested Undertow, and they r had been begun in his New York studio . The fi st l 1 88 was rapid y completed and exhibited in 4 , and the second was finished two years later . The series of ' works belonging entirely to his Prout s Neck period begins with the two great pictures of 1 885 dealing s fi with the live of the Banks shermen , The Fog 1 886 Warning andThe Herring Net . In Homer was f is o ff fi ty , and again the decade marked by a picture i ofespecial importance . This t me it is the noblest and

3 2 A V OICE FROM THE CLIFFS

%Water - Col or% % COLLECTION OF DR . ALE ANDER C . HUMPHREYS 3 3 n an at Wnsl w H 1 883 . P a 20 nc s 29 nc s w . Sig ed d d ed ; i o omer , p er . 4 i he high , Ai he ide

THE WEST W IND S UNTE RM YE R COLLECTION OF MR . AMUEL 1 W l . n an at ns w H 189 1 . Canvas nc s 44 nc s w Sig ed d d ed ; i o omer , , i he high , A i he ide reater n umber of his pictures f his

' rou s Neck f P t .

with his n ame . we: Homer to o k with him to p nc eived in 1 883 a t Atlanti

' ne especially to study the an d where he witnes sed the c su este ndertow hi h g g d U ,

an d the quietest of all his figure pictures , Eight Bells , just ten years later he rose again to something like the same level of serene power in The Lookout—Al l' s s t of f wa s Well . The la t ofhis pic ures seafaring li e 1 the extraordinary %issing the Moon of 904 . The o f r f series great pictures ofrock and su , in which the f sea is itsel the principal subject , the human figure be ing altogether absent or reduced to a minor role—the series which marks Homer as the greatest ofmarine — painters seems to have begun in 1 890 with Sunl ight on the Coast and the first Coast in Winter %there is r two another pictu e , ofa year or later , with the same title%and thereafter one or more such pictures can be 1 f placed in each year until 897 . A ter that date there f f are ewer of them , though the Early Morning a ter Storm at Sea is of 1 902 and the last ofthem is the last t D ft 1 0 pic ure he finished , the ri wood of 9 9 , To name c but the most important , the Luxembourg pi ture , A 1 8 0 of Summer Night , is of 9 ; The West Wind is — 1 89 1 ; High Cliff Coast of Main e is of 1 894 ; Cannon Rock and Northeaster are of 1 895 ; and Maine Coast f and Watching the Breakers o 1 896 . There are those who object to the more dramatic ’ ct c’t L L of Homer s subje pi ures , such as The ife ine and Undertow or the much later Gul f Stream for “ ”' stor s t ll in i e alit . d s their y g qu y If, indee , it an artistic sin to be interested in life and death as well as in paint — ing to care for the significance o f things a s well as for their shapes and colors—then Homer must bear the odium o f this sin with Michelangelo and Rembrandt

3 3 l all a st st st . and mo the greate arti s ofthe world But , be it noted , it is never a trivial anecdote that Homer of of tells , but a story big and simple issues and p ful human appeal ; and it is never a special tale , need ing knowledge of something outside the canvas for its

s comprehension . He attempts no complicated narra hi tion but seizes upon a single moment , in w ch all that it is necessary to kn ow ofwhat has gone before f de idts or what is to come a ter is implicit , and he p m st ct a that moment with the ut o dire ness nd power , disencumberin g it ofall side issues an d o f all un impor tant accessories . It is not whether an artist tells stories s that is important , but what tories he tells and how he ll t te s them , and I know no pic ures that could better ' serve than these ofHomer s as examples o f the kin d of stories that are suited to pidtorial tell ing and ofthe manner in which such stories should be told . It is only in the ﬁrst ofthem that the illustrative interest at all overbears that which is more purely idtorial hi p , and t s is not because oftoo much interest ct a s is s in the story , but because the pi ure , such , not o a s perfect s those ofa littl e later date . The concentra i tion ofattention on the fa nting ﬁgure ofthe woman , the energy in the attitude of the sailor who carries dia z her , the sense ofrapid motion conveyed by the g onal lin e ofthe rope and the blowing scarfand gown — f o f these are not aults but virtues , and virtues a high O order . ne could perhaps wish that the gown were hi s s s not torn quite where it is , but t s i a fault ofillu tra

l . tion, not a fau t ofpainting It is because neither the

34 THE HERRING NET

COLLECTION OF MR . CHARLES W . GOULD s s s s s Can a nc nc w . t a u nt . v , i he high , i he ide %Sigh me reme % ‘ w 511 514 11 3 5 114 To mo n o amo o

. ever zda r wonderful To paint a simple , y y occu rence , ' a part ofthe routine oflife , and by one s treatment of it to reveal its deeper implications and make manifest nit f f f the dig y a—nd the romance o the li e o which it forms a part that is what Millet did for the tillers of the soil and what Homer does for the ﬁsherman f . st o and the sailor Take , as an in ance this , The Fog a Warning . Here is a h libut ﬁsher rowing in with hi s hi s o f catch and , as dory rises on the back the long hi s l wave , looking over shou der to make sure ofthe ti o f th e hi direc on schooner to w ch he is returning . Nothing could be simpler than the attitude o f the i man , rowing stead ly and easily , and there is no sug gestion of tempest or wreck in this dark sea barely breaking into a whitesc ap here and there under the fr influence ofa esh breeze . But across the horizon lies n o f a long ba k fog , and from it rise diagonally two or three ragged streamers which show that it is beg '

ni . n ng to move toward us It is e ough , and one is as conscious of the most insidious and deadly of the ’ ﬁsh erman s perils as of the matterzo fsc o urse way in ’ which it is met a s a part ofthe day s work . of l In the greatest salt sea epics , Eight Bel s , there is not even so much suggestion of danger . Here is a hi sun ml : cloudy sky through w ch the breaks di y, cast flat ing a gleam upon a and tumbled sea , and against it two or three lines o f cordage show that the ship rides k t o on an even keel . Upon the level dec stand w men in i his o lskins , the skipper and mate , occupied with s the mo t regularly recurring oftheir daily tasks , the

36 a s taking ofthe noonday observation . They do it a maid would wash the dishes or a s a farmer would hoe his u corn , yet one is made to feel to the f ll the impor tance of this daily act upon which the safety o f th e ’ ship depends . Exactly in the routine nature of the business seems to lie a great part of its signiﬁcance ,

f i . and the whole li e ofthe sailor is ncluded in it — It is in reality this same gift of story telling this faculty ofdwelling on the essentials ofthe subjedtand ofexcluding or subordin ating less important things ’ that makes Homer s sur f pidtures the triumphs they k . l a are Whistler cou d m e The Blue Wave , or some f o . his late sea pieces , bits ofpure decoration Homer , hi also , was not insensible to t s decorative beauty of a s h as the sea , he shown now andagain , but generally s ul he seize upon the weight and b k ofwater , upon the battering and rending power ofthe wave , as upon the hi s an d de idts t ngs e sential to be told , these things he p as no one else has ever done . There has never been any difference of opinion about this latest phase of ’ art h is : Homer s , and pure marines are universally ac c t d hi ep e as the greatest ever painted . Yet I t nk the kind of genius that created them is present in even fu u i ller measure in the ﬁnest ofhis ﬁg re p dtures . ’ After 1 900 Homer s powers may be said to have li ll been on the dec ne . He was sti to do things that his st idtures we should be sorry to lose , but greate p hi s were painted , and inspirations came more rarely . ll f He had never a owed himsel to work by formulae , ul and he co d not go on painting from sheer inertia .

37 He had always been dependent upon the immediate suggestion ofnature or on the viviﬁed memory o fsuch f ft of suggestion , andwas apt to eel , a er each period ex h austin g creation , that there were no more inspira an d as w . tions to come , that his work done As early 1 8 st reci t o f as 93 , ju after the p that gold medal ofthe Columbian Exposition which wa s the ﬁrst of those f honors which ell thickly upon his declining years , he “ wrote : At present and for some time past I see no

: reason why I should paint any icftures . These mo — p ments ofl a ss1tude one can hardly call 1t despon den c fu s o f hi s y, for he was lly consciou the value of work — an d became more frequent as he grew older , more than once he declared hi s intention of painting no 1 0 f more . In 9 7 , a month or two be ore he ﬁnished in two hours ofstrenuous work from nature that Early f r l Morning a ter Storm , begun two yea s ear ier , which seems to strike a new note of beauty in his work , he “ wrote to Miss Leila Mechlin : Perhaps you think I

Th atis a mis take. am still painting andinterested in art .

hi for . I care not ng art I no longer paint . I do notwish to see my name in print again . The inspirations always returned and he always

: began again to paint . Even after his ﬁrst serious ill 1 08 l n hi ness , in 9 , an i l ess w ch made him , for a time , u nearly blind and nearly helpless , he wo ld stay in his ’ brother s house for only two weeks . Leaving a note

: behind him he departed , early one morning , to re sume work in his studio .

t . He had , however , lit le more to do there He

38 HOUND AND HUNTER S COLLECTION OF MR . LOUI ETTLINGER

W sl 189 . v s 8 s 4 s n an at n w H Can a nc nc w . Sig ed d d ed ; i o omer, 2 , 2 i he high , 7% i he ide

H I%H C IFF COAST O F M A INE L ,

NATIO NA L W S O D . c . GALLERY , A HINGT N , EVANS COLLECTION

n an at H r 1 8 Can as 3 nc s nc s w . Sig ed d d ed ; ome , 94. v , 0 i he high , i he ide tln n once he decl ared his

sume work in his studio .

ll layman , and it has been acknowledged almost as fu y f contemporary posterity, intelligent oreign

as his : opinion , by the universal assent of country f men . No other American painter o his generation has been so widely recognized except that one who was , in temper and accomplishments , almost his ex M N ill hi c e . act antithesis , James W stler

For , surely, no greatly successful artist ever had lesscare than Homer for those decorative and a sth e: tic qualities which Whistler proclaimed , in theory

f : o . is and by his practise , the whole art There noth n ing gracious or i sinuating , hardly , even , anything f o . reticent or mysterious , about the art Homer His pictures will not hang comfortably on a wall or in: vite you discreetly to the contemplation ofgradually o f unfolding beauties . They speak with the voice a trumpet and , whether they exhilarate or annoy you , o f you cannot n egl edt them . They have none the amenities ofthe drawingroom , and you might almost as well let the sea itself into your house as one of ’ Homer s transcripts o fit . Even in agreat gallery they

f . o ten seem too strident, too unmitigated , too crude Ifthey do not conquer you they surprise and discon cert you . But this asper1ty has no kinship with the vul gar noisiness of those painters who thinking o f the con: flidt h mi of the ex ibitions , deter ne to outshout their fellows that they may be heard . Homer is not think hi ing ofexhibitions , to w ch he seldom cared to send , any more than he is thinking ofthe ﬁnal destination

40 ' i hi o f his picture on someone s walls . He s not t nking of h a s ofan audience at all , but only the thing he seen l and o f hi s effort to render it truthfu ly . He places s if his himselfin dire t competition with nature , and work seems harsh or violent it has become so in the ' effort to match nature s strength with his own . He painted directly from the object whenever that was f possible , and it was o ten possible to him when it ’ his All s Well might not be so to another . He painted hi entirely by moonlight , never touc ng it by day or working over it in the studio . He had a portable t mi painting house construc ed , that he ght work from an d nature in the bitterest weather , he used to hang his a canvas on the balcony of studio , in the open air , “ “ fr and study it om a distance with reference solely , “

e . as he said , to its simpl and absolute truth This habit ofﬁghting nature on her own terms he carried into work that must necessarily be done from mem c r his icftures y, and studio p show the same pitting of his powers against those of nature as do his direct transcripts from the thing before him . He knew quite well that pidtures so painted could not be properly ll ll seen on the wa s of a house or ga ery , and he once v f ad ised a riend to look at one ofhis canvases , then in ' s f a dealer window, rom the opposite corner , diagon ally across the street . ' And if Homer has nothing ofWh istler s e sth eti ' cism he has almost as little of Inness s passion or of ’ Homer Martin s reverie . Compared to such men he is quite impersonal . He has no lyrical fervor ; makes

4 1 no attempt to express his own emotion or his o wn f . t o mood His is the objec ive attitude the dramatist , an d however much nature may stimulate or excite him , it is her passion and her mood that he is trying hi s . to render , not own He is too obviously capable of for such excitement , and too dependent upon it his ll — best results , to be ca ed a cool observer let us rather call him an exalted observer ; but an observer and a o f recorder things observed he essentially is . He is — a kind of flaming realist a burning devotee o f the

a dtual . Being such an observer he was always making the un ex edted hi most p observations , and painting t ngs nl ll : that were not o y unpainted ti then but , apparent l un . y, seen by anyone else His watercolor sketches , in which he set down with astonishin g succin tn ess and rapidity the things he saw , are a vast repertory ofsuch surprises ; but even in his more deeply co n sid: ered and long wrought idtures he is constantly doing p — things ofa disturbing originality painting a spedts of nature which another , if he had seen them, would f consider unpaintable . For Homer is a raid ofnothing hi s own and trusts perceptions absolutely, having no notion of traditions that must not be violated or of limits that cannot be overstepped . That he has seen

a thing , and that it interested him , is reason enough for trying to paint it . Whether he fails or succeeds is — hardl y his affair whether the result is pleasing or —“ the reverse is nothing to him I saw it so ; there it — is . The next time it will be a new observation , and

42 A SUMMER NIGHT TH U% MB OU G PA IS E L E R , R

Signed and dated ; Homer 1 890.

ur s edl y thought the subject impossible . Homer ad il mits no impossib ities , and having seen it he painted ra : reen it , the three heads red against the g y g sea and f the moon like a ourth in the group , only a touch and a sweep o f light on the shaft o f an oar to indicate that there is anything to support these solid ﬁgures in their

. c strange position You gasp , once , at the unexpe ted o f ness the impression , and then accept it as obvious

truth . idtures n ec es These surprise p are not always , or ’ saril y , Homer s best ; some of his greatest successes are attained when dealing with subjedts that anyone hi o f : might have chosen . But in s treatment such sub ’ jects there is always the sense o f new and personal vision ; the things have not been painted by him be: of cause others had painted them , but rather in spite f c . that fa t He has seen them a resh for himself, andhe does not choose to be deterred from paintin g them

cause others have seen them also . In a hundred little o f t things you will have the evidence the lucidi y, the

acuity and the originality of his observation . The un expedtedn ess is merely transferred from the whole

to the details .

Such being the observer , the recorder ofobserva tions spares no pains to make his record as truthful as

possible . He will not trust his memory or his notes

any farther than he must . He will produce as nearly o f his as possible the conditions original observation , that the details may be ﬁlled in with his eye upon the object; and he will do this not because his memory is

44 k i i s wea , but rather because t is so strong that he sure not to lose sight ofh i s original impression while veri fyin g the details by renewed experiment . The studio t in Washin ton in the old Universi yBuilding g Square , hi fr 1 86 1 1 88 w ch he occupied om to 4 , was a room in the tower with a door opening upon the fl a t roof of the main building where he could pose his models be: i neath the sky . Most artists of his t me painted , as l s most artists sti l do , dire t from the model , and many of them would have been glad o f his op ortunity to ul paint in the open air . Not many , per aps , wo d have pushed the love of exactitude so far a s he did when he painted the figures of his Undertow from models kept wet by continual dousing with buckets o f water kept at hand for the purpose . This reminds one o f some of Meissonier s expedients for securing accuracy ; the resul t was different because Homer had a far firmer grasp o f the total effecftthan Meisson his ier ever possessed , and did not allow pursuit of fa cfts his s o f minor to obscure vi ion the essential ones . o f i u a s There are other tales h s scrup lousness , such n his propping up the dory ofThe Fog Warni g , at the necessary angle , against a sand dune on the beach and posing his fisherman model in it ; or his modelling in clay the ship 5 hell of All 3 Well when he could not hi s i n find one to mind the junk shops ofBoston , but more impressive are the evidences ofanother kind of ‘ t for ff t hi : scruple , an anxie y exactitude ofe ec w ch re minds one more of Monet than of Meissonier . He often waited weeks and months fo r just the effect he

45 wanted , and seemed to his intimates unreasonably t idle , because he could not go on with the pic ure he was interested in and could paint nothing else until R wa s . that completed Shooting the apids , now in of was the Metropolitan Museum New York , begun 1 0 ex edted a s in 9 4 , and Homer p to complete it easily he had made many studies for it ; but he could not sat: isfy himself without another trip to the Upper Sague f un fin nay to restudy it rom nature , and it remained f ish ed at th e time o his death . The Early Morning ft was his a er Storm at Sea two years on easel and , t volumin during that time , was the subjec ofa rather ous correspondence with the dealers who had ordered ' is al it . Homer s excuse for delay ways that he must “ % have a crack at it out ofdoors , as he is not satisfied 1 2 to work from his original study . In March of 90 he “ : l writes After waiting a ful year , looking out every — day for it I got the light and the sea that Iwan ted ; but as it was very cold I had to paint out o f my win was —it dow, and I a little too far away is not good f enough yet , and I must have another painting rom “ l t r . na u e on it Final y, seven months later, he writes n f 6 again The lo g looked for day arrived , and rom ' ain te f —fini hin to 8 o clock A . M . I > d rom nature s g it — n fourtfi n , maki g the painti g on this canvas oftwo “ hours each . To Homer 's own consciousness this acuteness of perception and this thorough and pains = taking realiza: tion were all there was to his art . He had no patience with theories and would seldom talk about painting

46 THE F O% HUNT THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

n an at H 1893 . Canvas 3 8 nc s 68 nc s w Sig ed d d ed ; omer , , % i he high , % i he ide . ﬁ m he oould st as interested in and

h e had made man y s

but as it was very w I was a do , W

’ to B o cl ock A it —ma the , king % hours each .

h w tio n were all t ere as whis aﬂ .

PART FIVE

IS , ofcourse , quite impossible to accept such an ' timate as ﬁnal . Extraordinary as are Homer s o f powers of observation and record , such powers al for effedts will not , one , account the he produced . l was A veracious reporter he undoubted y , but he must have been something more and other than a reporter however veracious . His great pictures are either intensely dramatic or grandly epic , and nei ther dramatic intensity nor epic serenity were ever al attained by veracity one . They are attainable , in ‘ l ri . effedts picto al as in iterary art , only by style Ifthe are great the art must be great in proportion ; if the effecfts are vivid the style must be keen and clear ; if

: they are noble the style mustbe elevated . Conscious l wa s y or unconsciously , Winslow Homer an artist , and it becomes a matter of interest to examin e the his ’ kn elements of pictorial style , to test their wea ess mi if or strength , to deter ne , possible , by what means im hi s results are attained . Beginning with the least portant of these elements let us study his technical

' dl hi s material m o f : han ing of , his employ ent the me dium o f o il painting ; then his treatment oflight and hi s hi hi s o f color; then draughtmans p , knowledge and f ﬁn ll eeling for signiﬁcant form ; a y , reaching the most o f us his fundamental artistic qualities , let consider composition and the nature of the basic design to which the other elements of his pictures are added or out ofwhich they grow .

48 While felicity in the handling o f material is the least important o f artistic qualities it is by no means his without importance . Without extraordinary vir tuo sity Frans Hals would be a nearly negligible paint o f his er , and the loss exquisite treatment ofmaterial would considerably diminish the rank o feven so great

a s . O a master Titian r , to take a more modern in n n o f sta ce , thi k how much Corotwe should lose with the loss o f his lovely surfaces and h is admirably flow: ’ li is ing touch . Homer s technical hand ng ofoil paint is entirely without charm , and it abundantly evident f that he triumphs not through but in spite o it . Mr . “ n : Beatty has said , mea ing it for praise No one , I ’ i k wa s th n , ever heard to talk about Homer s manner o f o f painting , or about his technical skill , as special is far h a s f importance . He so right that no one ound ’ li Homer s technic , in the mited sense of the word , a his reason for liking or admiring paintings , but many have found it a reason for disliking them; and to some ' o f the artist s most sincere admirers his technical lim itation s remain a stumbling block in the way oftheir l free enjoyment of his great qua ities . In his early

is . L work his handling hard , dry and timid ater it f c’ attains to orce and dire tness , and sometimes to great ll its ski , but never to beauty . It is perhaps at best in t such a pic ure as The West Wind , where the sure o f ness touch and economy ofmeans are striking and , idture to some degree , enjoyable . The p looks as ifit in few had been painted a hours , without a wasted i ’ stroke of the brush , and its workmanlike d rectness

49 communicates a certain exhilaration . But this im o f t pression spontanei y, which is the highest pleasure ’ i o f i Homer s handl ng is capable giv ng , vanishes with its further labor , and there is nothing to take place . f His sur aces become wooden or wooly , his handling grows labored and harsh and unpleasing . At best his method is a serviceable tool ; at less than its best it is a l hindrance to his expression , ike a bad handwriting , which one must become accustomed to and forget be fore one can enjoy the thing written . ’ If Homer s color is not , like his workmanship , a positive injury to his expression it seldom reaches the

point ofbeing a positive aid to it , at least in those great paintin gs which are the most profound expressions a of his genius . In both color and h ndling his slighter sketches in watercolor reach a standard ofexcellence ff he was unable to attain in the more di icult medium . Many of his marines are little more than black and hi c ar e w te in essential constru tion , and almost as s effective in a good photograph a in the original . In for The West Wind , instance , the whole ofthe land and the ﬁgure that stands upon it ar e ofa nearly i is of form brown , wh le the sky an opaque gray , very i t of l ttle quali y , brought down to the edge the earth in hi one painting . Across this the w te ofthe breakers

fr . is struck with a few ank, strong touches The con t of r tras brown and g ay , oftransparent and opaque , is pleasant; but the whole expression ofthe pidtur e is its is : in its shapes and its values ; color , as color , near

l . y negligible This is an extreme case , yet in most of

50 — Q TH E LOO% OUT A L L S W ELL

TH MUS UM OF FIN A TS B OSTON MASS . E E E R , ,

n an at H r 1896 . Canvas 4 nc s 3 0 nc s w Sig ed d d ed ; ome , , 2 i he high , i he ide .

to color , there is some evidence that , in his later days ,

: he became partially color blind . This evidence ﬁrst fu appears , curiously enough , in the richest piece of ll

: color he produced in oils , The GulfStream . That pic was ture a long time in his studio , and he may well have added the unexplained and unrelated touch of pure scarlet on the stern o f the boat at a time when his sight was beginning to fail . Certainly the scarlet s b : is o vivid , and so without visi le reason or connec

tion with other things , as to suggest that he did not in sen si: see it as we do , and that his eye was growing his hi tive to red . In latest work t s scarlet spot recurs in a more than once , and is the more startl g from its p pearan ce in connection with a coldness and harshness ofgen eral tone that woul d o fitselfsuggest a state akin

to color blin dness . he : There can , on the other hand , no doubt what ’ ever ofthe strength o f Homer s native gift for form fr and for expressive line . Almost om his childhood r w he made d a ings which have the incisive truth , in attitude and expression of the sketches ofa Charles % t eene , and , after his Tynemouth s udies , his ﬁgures , al w m lit especi ly of o en , attain a grandeur and nobi y oftype which makes them almost worthy to be com:

pared with the majestic figures ofMillet . In no other part of his art does he show so much sense ofbeau: ty as in some of these grave and simple figures with their ample forms , their slow gesture , their quiet and its hi s un forced dignity o f bearing . At highest level i ful draw ng ofthe male figure is , ifless beauti , almost

52 equally impressive ; and his grasp ofattitude IS al most infallible . Whatever his people are doing they do r t ff ightly and naturally , with the exac amount ofe ort necessary, neither more nor less , and with an entire ll o i al . absence ofart fici posing Infa ible , als is his sense al o f bulk and weight . His figures are ways three i a d mensional , nd always firmly planted on their feet — fi an d i they occupy a de nite amount of space , y eld i i i of to , or resist, a defin te amount ofgrav tat on or ex ternal force . These are among the greatest gifts of the figure t draughtsman , and there can be li tle doubt that Homer had the natural qualifications for a draughts: man of the first order . But no man , whatever his t f strudture h u na ural gi ts , ever mastered the of the man figure without a prolonged investigation o f that

figure disembarrassed from the disguise of clothing . A profound and intense study of the nude 1 5 indis i an d pensable to the mastery of ts secrets , for such study Homer had little opportunity and less inclina f i tion . He received no training rom others and , n the i n e: confidence ofh s strength , failed to appreciate the c essit f y ofgiving it to himsel ; and his figures , though i f ct : right n bulk and attitude , are o ten almost stru ure t is l a less . This lack ofstruc ure seldom so painfu ly p r pa ent as in the rounded pudginess , like that of an fl i n L L in ated bladder , ofthe woman The ife ine , but even in his best figures there are regretable lapses and passages ofemptiness The arms ofthe three girls in A Voice from the Cliffs are beautifii lly and naturally

53 arranged , but they are not what a trained draughts man could call arms—there are no bones or muscles u — u nder the skin and even the fig res in Undertow, his most strenuous and most successful piece o f figure o f drawing , are not impeccable , not without regions woodenness or puffiness . ff Perhaps wisely , he never again made such an e ort —for is use at fifty, ifever , it time to the acquirements one has rather than to strive for new ones—and his d figure rawing relapses , in his later work , into sum f mary indications , su ficient for his purpose but slight i stru ur er and sl ghter in dt e . But if H omer h adneithertherightkindnortheright i for amount oftrain ng the figure draughtsman , he had the only right and true training for the draughtsman s ofrocks and wave , and no one has ever drawn them better . Constant observation had taught him all that fii ll su : it is needful to know oftheir forms , and had y p so f pl emen ted his natural gifts . No one has elt and o f expressed the solid resistance rock , the vast bulk

: and hammering weight ofwater , the rush and move o f ment ofwave and wind . It is the suggestion weight and movement that makes his ﬁgure drawing — pressive in spite ofits lapses it is in the suggestion of weight and movement that his drawing of land and sea is unmatched an d unsurpassable . o f an d o f A sense weight movement is , however , — much more a matter ofdesign of the composition of — line than o f drawing in the usual meaning o f that of : word . Indeed , the sense movement can be con

54 EARLY MORNING AFTER STORM AT SEA

W . % . B % B COLLECTION OF MR . I Y

tle bit o f arrangement the air h as been ﬁlled not onl y

: with sun and breeze but with music , and the ex is pression of the summer morning complete . That Homer himself may have been unaware of what he had done is suggested by the fast that when he repro: duc ed this composition , reversed by the engraver , in “ Harper ’ s Weekly“ he utterly spoiled it by the trodudtio n o f another ﬁgure , at what has become the f di attradts le t, which sturbs the balance and the eye away from the bird . Whether the change was made for to please the publishers , or some other reason , the h a s idture is music gone and the p dead . t Now look at a quite late pic ure , The Search Light is l 1 8 . of 99 It almost tota ly without color , and has not even that approach to unity oftone which moon: light sometimes enabled Homer to attain . In hand s ling it is poor and harsh , and there are no obje ts in it which require more of the draughtsman than a fairly ’ for o f correct eye the sizes and shapes things . Yet the pidture is grandly impressive . How is this impres ? siven ess secured It can be by nothing but composi f . er edt tion , and by composition at its simplest The p

“ f co ordi: balancing oftwo or three masses , the per ect nation o f a few straight lines and a few segments of — is a ct r : circles , and the thing done great pi u e is creat ed out o f nothing and with almost no aid from any other element o f the art ofpainting than this all im : f portant one o design .

s . It is alway so with Homer The gravity, the sense t ofserious import , the feeling that the ac ion in hand is 56 o f o c one great and permanent interest , not a trivial c u ation is E p ofthe moment , given to ight Bells by the masterly use ofa few verticals and horizontals . The rush and swoop of The West Wind is a matter ofa few sweeping andreduplicating curves . The patterns ' o f The Fox Hunt and All s Well are as astonishingly fresh an d unexpected as the observations they contain and control . Perhaps the greatest test ofa designer is hi s use of ’ ff t little things to produce unexpectedly great e ec s , and a remarkable instance ofthis is tobe found in Th e Gulf m R how Strea . emove the trailing ropes from the of the tubby boat and its helpless sliding into the trough o f s ll the ea wi be checked , the ghastly gliding of the sharks will be arrested , and the ﬁne wave drawing ill ‘ n w o t avail to keep the pidture alive and moving . ’ In Homer s mastery of design we have a quality hi e w ch is , if not precisely decorative , pre minently t s s monumental; a quali y which explain the de ire , once expressed to me by La Farge , that Homer might be given a commission for a great mural painting ; a quality which makes one regret the loss o f the mural decorations he actually undertook for Harper and i : . un Brothers In th s mastery of design we have , doubtedly, that which gives Homer his authoritative and magisterial utterance ; that which constitutes him hi him a creator , that w ch transforms from an acute observer and a brilliant reporter into a great and orig : inal artist . A poor technician , an unequal colorist, a d powerful but untrained raughtsman , his faults might

57 almost overhear his merits were he not a designer of o f the ﬁrst rank . Because he is a designer the ﬁrst rank he is fairly certain to be permanently reckoned a master .

PART SI% N that chapter ofhis “Your United States which

deals with art in America Mr . Arnold Bennett tells us that one ofhis reasons for coming to this country was his desire of seeing the pidtures o f Winslow a h e Homer , th t when saw them he did not like them , ’ wa but that, coming upon an exhibition ofHomer s lors f hi s terco . , he was orced to reconsider judgment “ He found these summary and highly distinguished fu l “ sketches to be beauti l , thri ling and clearly the %

. O productions ofa master ne may guess that Mr . ' Bennett did not see the best ofHomer s pidtures in oil l did as , assured y , he not see much else in American i him art that m ght, or should , have interested ; but it is quite possible that further study would have left l him ofthe same opinion , and that he wou d still have If considered the watercolors superior to the oils . he did so he would onl y be in line with a great deal o f modern opinion which prefers the immediacy and vividness of the sketch to the ponderation of the idture u considered p , and which rates the multit de of ' Mill et s drawings and pastels higher than The Glean: ers or the noble Wo man with Buckets in the Van f derbilt c oll estio n . or Indeed , there is better reason such a preference in the case of Homer than in that 58 ll for ll was of Mi et, Mi et , what Homer never quite

became , a master of oil painting , and could give a richness ofcolor and a beauty ofmaterial to his pic

tures which Homer wa s quite incapable ofemul ating . ’ l c areﬁi l Homer s ear ier watercolors are neat, ,

rather tinted than colored , but pleasanter and far

more skillful than the oil paintings ofthe same period . The transparency ofthe washes and the deft decisive ness o f touch give them a charm and sparkle proper rodustion o f to the medium . They are already the p a more competent workman than their author ever he

s . s came in the si ter art The Tynemouth eries , not all hi i o f of w ch were painted n Tynemouth , for some them are dated several years after the painter ’ s r Am iff f t tu n to erica , d er rom bo h the earlier and later i r fu work n being complete pictu es , care lly composed A s hi o f and elaborately wrought . such one t nks them in their place among the other compositions oftheir

creator , not with the rapid and astonishing notes and wa s l t of sketches ofhis later years . It a co lec ion these later sketches that Bennett saw and admired . It was by a coll edtion of such sketches that Homer chose to be represented at the Pan :Americ an Exposition of

1 90 1 . It is by these sketches that many artists and many critics of today would consider Homer most likely to be remembered .

There must be reasons , more or less valid , for a v v —f preference so i idly felt elt , at times , by Homer himself - for these watercolors over hi s more elabo rate works in oil , and one of these reasons I have

59 ’ already touched upon ; it is Homer s extraordinary I f . f technical mastery ofthe medium : rom the ﬁrst , he painted better in watercolors than he was ever n able to do in oils , it may be said that , in the e d , he painted better in watercolors—with more virtuosity a eri of h nd, more sense ofthe right use of the mat al , — more decisive mastery ofits proper resources than O almost any modern has been able to do in oils . ne R must go back to ubens or Hals for a parallel , in oil ' ll n painting , to Homer s prodigious ski i watercolor , and perhaps to the Venetians for anything so perfect l f ra: y right in its technical manner . His elicity and idit o f lin l p y hand g is a de ight , and to see the way, for s in in tance , which all the complicated forms and fore shortenings of the head ofa palm tree are given in a n few instanta eous touches , each touch ofa shape one would hardly have thought of, yet each indisputably t o th e right in charac er , is to have a new revelati n of

: magical power of sheer workmanship . Even Sar ' gent s stupendous cleverness in watercolor is not he hi : more wonderful , though Sargent seems to t nk s ing a little of the brilliancy of his method , wherea in n s : ob edt Homer is th ki g , ingle mindedly, ofthe j or ff t the e ec to be rendered , and is clever only because he is sure ofwhat he wants to do and seizes instin c: tively on the nearest way ofdoing it . An d this swiftness and certainty ofhandis delight ﬁi l not merely for its own sake but because it insures the greatest purity and beauty ofthe material . The highest perfection ofoil painting depends upon com:

60 plicated processes which are almost impossible to the ﬁ o m set n his o bser: painter nature , impatient to dow vation s while they are immanent to his mind ; and for these processes our modern painters have , the f io n a . er edt most p rt, forgotten The p ofwatercolor

diredtn ess i . depends , largely , upon and rapid ty The material is never so beautiﬁi l as when it is washed wi in at once , th as little disturbance by reworking s hi w a may be , the w te paper every here clear and luminous beneath and between the washes . It is the ideal material for rapid sketching from nature be : cause the sketcher , instead of sacriﬁcing technical i ’ beauty to d rectness ofexpression , gains greater beau

t e . y with every increase ofspe d Therefore , for the ’ i : fastid ous in technical matters , Homer s sudden nota tions ofthings observed have an extraordinary charm which comes ofthe perfect harmony between the end his sought and the means employed . The more mind th e ren derin s is ﬁxed upon l g ofhi impression and the less he thin ks of his material the more beautiﬁi l his material becomes . The accuracy ofhis observation , the rapidity ofhis execution and the perfection o f his hi technic increase together , and reach their ghest f value at the same moment . The one little square o paper becomes a true record ofthe ap earan ce ofna ture , an amazing bit ofsleight ofhan and a piece of perfect material beauty; it gives you three kinds of pleasure , intimately related and united , and each in the highest degree . Following from this technical superiority and

6 1 t im closely connec ed with it is the second , and more ' a t o f port nt, superiori y Homer s watercolors ; they are vastly more beautiful in color than are the best ofhis

. O erfedtion : oil paintings il painting , in its p , is capa ble of a depth and splendor of color which water as color painting can never equal , but oil painting it is generally practised today, and as Homer practised is it , relatively poor and opaque in color, muddy and l n Al cha ky or brow and heavy . most any watercolor i frai f i pa nter , ifhe will re n rom emulating the solid ty i use o f ofoil pa nt and eschew the Chinese white , can attain a purity and brilliancy of tone which is very rare in modern oil painting . Amaster ofthe material , fu like Homer , capable ofstriking in a hue with its ll

t an d : intensi y at once , with just the gradations modu l a tion s c an he wishes it to have , make every particle his ff c of color sing , and can reach e e ts either offorce or tenderness that are impossible to the fl oun derers in that pasty mass which modern oil pain ting too readily becomes . Ofcourse the use ofa particular method does not al radic ly alter the nature ofthe man who employs it , ' s and so , although Homer s color is far better in the e hi s i s watercolor sketches than in o l , he does not , even in in them , become , the full sense ofthe words , a true colorist . He is never one of those artists for whom color is the supreme and necessary mean s ofexpres sion . His art does not live in color and by color as the art ofa musician exists in and by musical sounds ; but , t o f aided by the beau y and transparency the material ,

his es you may watch him at his work , catch excite ment at the di scovery o f some new effec’t or some hi f therto unnoticed truth , see what he saw and eel what he felt with the least possible impediment be tween his mind and yours . No wonder Arnold Ben l nett found such sketches thri ling . You are reading the note books of a sort o f reporter in excels is o f na: ' his ture s doings , and you are delighted with accur acy, astonished at his variety , overwhelmed by his If prodigal abundance . you share the modernlove for fasts and have anything of the modern carelessness of for f art you will ask nothing more , and will pre er such notes to any possible work ofart that might be constructed from them . If f , on the other hand , you are one who eels that a complete work of art is something different from i and more than a sketch , you may st ll enjoy these sketches intensely while asking for your fullest satis fadtion something more deﬁnitely designed and more all deeply considered . With their brilliancy these l g notes are on y notes , and Homer was capa o f ble ofsomething more than notes . Hundreds these sketches were set down for their own sake and never ’ o f referred to again . Many the oil pictures seem to

: have had no speciﬁc preparation , but to have been be gun direcftly from nature or fr om a memory enriched by the constantstudy ofnature . But now and then one can identify the original watercolor sketch and idture f see : the p painted rom it, and then one can clear lythe defedts which are an inevitable accompaniment

64 o f the merits ofsuch sketching . You cannot have at o f the same time , and in the same work , the merits the sketch and o f the picture ; and ifthe picture is in: ferior in spontaneity to the sketch it is as manifestly superior to it in concentration and power . In the ' E o f Memorial xhibition Homer s works , held at the 1 1 1 waterc ol Metropolitan Museum in 9 , the original or o f Hound an d Hunter and the ﬁnal paintin g ofthe t r same subjec hung together , and the compa ison of ’ them was instructive . At ﬁrst sight the watercolor is l f was the more taking . It exhi arating in the resh

l : sparkle ofits hand ing , and the color , ifnot rich or in ’ tense , is clear and cool . The oil picture seemed heavy ff as and snu y by contrast and , mere painting , rather idt re in x li uninteresting . Yet the oil p u is almost e p c ably impressive and remains firml y fixed in one ’ s memory while the watercolor has faded from it . The difference is in countless little chan ges which have transformed a bit ofreporting into a masterly design . Everything has been so adjusted and so definitely fit ted into its place that the result is that sense of per man en c e an d o f unalterableness which is perhaps the f f greatest eeling a work o art can produce . It is this relative lack of design which makes the o f erfedt watercolor sketches Homer , p though they are as sketches , inferior to his great compositions in

. mi oil They are marvelous , they are ad rable , they

: are distinguished , but they are sketches . They re main the small change of that great talent which o could pr duce Eight Bells or The Fox Hunt . In their 65 o f v o f d sharpness seeing , their ivacity han ling , their ff luminous and intense coloring , they give a di erent pleasure from that whichwe receive from the master: —a — pieces pleasure , at times , even more keen but , as nk I thi , a pleasure ofa somewhat lower kind . o f i It is , however , a matter very l ttle importance whether we like better Homer ' s watercolors or his oil s is paintings , ince it the same manwho producedboth . ff t f m And , indeed , the di erence be ween his per or ance in the two mediums is a difference of degree rather — than of kind a difference of relative emphasis only

f all : the whole Homer being , a ter , necessary to ac hi count for anyt ng he did . The consumate designer of the great compositions based his design upon the same acute observation that delights us in the sketch:

es ; the brilliant sketcher , though he does not carry ‘ design to its ultimate perfection , is yet always a born of designer , so that almost any one his sketches has t idture i the possibili y ofa great p in it, and his sl ghtest f is . note a whole , not a mere ragment To lose any part of his work were to lose something that no one

s us . el e can give Add to the broad humanity, the power of nar ration and the magniﬁcent design o f hi s major works the exhaustless wealth o f his ma sterﬁi l ’ t an d and succinc jottings ofnatural appearances , you — have the sum o f Winslow Homer surely one ofthe most remarkable personalities in the art ofthis or any o f country in the latter part the nineteenth century .