i^','i yv^ ijj.B.CLARK£ cn Qni'5;tLL£RS«ST»Tm..ri THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WINSLOW HOMER PORTIL^IT OF WINSLOW HOMER AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-TWO From a photograph taken at Prout's Neck, Maine, in igo8. Photogravure 1 y^ff THE'T'ttt:^ LIFEt ti AND WORKS OF WINSLOW HOMER BY WILLIAM HOWE DOWNES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 191 JNJMAA/j«^G LIBRARY JUL 19™ i5[!15WW OCT 2 :M332 iNSTITUTlOW HATiOMAL COLL^^iiuji Of FINE AHW COPYRIGHT^ J911, BY WILLIAM HOWE DOWNES ALL RIGHTS RESER\'ED Published October iqii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE author is grateful to all those persons who have aided him in the preparation of this biography. To Winslow Homer's two brothers he owes especially cordial thanks. Mr. Charles S. Homer has been most kind in lending indispensable assistance and most patient in an- swering questions. Mr. Arthur B. Homer with fortitude has listened to the reading of the entire manuscript, and has given wise and valuable counsel and criticism. To Mr. Arthur P. Homer and Mr. Charles Lowell Homer of Boston the author is indebted for many useful suggestions and interesting remi- niscences. Mr. Joseph E. Baker, the friend and comrade of Winslow Homer in his youth, and his fellow-apprentice in BufTord's lithographic establishment in Boston, from 185510 1857, has supplied interesting data which could have been obtained from no other source. Mr. Walter Rowlands, of the fine arts department of the Boston Public Library, has made himself useful in the line of historic research, for which his experience admirably qualifies him, and has gone over the first rough draft of the manuscript and offered many friendly hints and suggestions for its betterment. Thanks are due to Mr. Thomas B. Clarke of New York, who has freely placed at the disposal of the author all his stores of information, and has liberally offered a mass of material for illustrative pur- poses. To Mr. John W. Beatty, director of fine arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, warm acknowledgments are made for his constant and generous interest. Mr. William V. O'Brien of Chicago, Mr. Burton Mansfield vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of Haven, Mr. Ross Turner of Salem, Mr. New William J. Bixbee of Marblehead, Mr. Harrison S. Morris of Philadel- phia, Messrs. T. Gerrity, GustavReichard, J. Nilsen Laurvik, Sidney W. Curtis, Bernard Devine, and C. Klackner, all of New York, Messrs. Doll & Richards of Boston, Mr. J. W. Young of Chicago, Mr. J. H. Gest of the Cincinnati Museum Association, Mr. Bryson Burroughs of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, and the officers of the art museums of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Providence, Washington, Milwaukee, and Worcester are also to be mentioned among those whose cooperation has been of value. To the courtesy and kindness of these and other men, whatever merit the history of Winslow Homer's life may possess is very largely due. Without their help the difficul- ties would have been immeasurably greater. Only a year ago, it would have been impossible to gather sufficient au- thentic first-hand information to construct any definite and connected account of Homer's life. With admirable loyalty his brothers have scrutinized every personal detail with sole regard to what he would have been likely to approve, and the family habit of reserve in such matters is strong. The best things are often those which do not get into print. The reader has the privilege of reading between the lines, and if he chooses to exercise it here, he will find nothing but what is creditable and honorable to Winslow Homer. Boston, March i, 191 1. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY NOTE . xv CHAPTER I. The Artist and the Man. Winslow Homer's Chief Titles to Fame — His Individuality and Aniericanism — Tlie Poetry of Real Life — Single-mindedness — Painter of the Ocean — Adverse Criticism — Personal Character and Traits — Kindness and Charity — Love of Flowers — Sense of Humor 3 CHAPTER II. Early Days in Boston and Cambridge. 1S36-1859. To the Age of 23. The Homer Family — Winslow Homer's Parents — His Birth- place — Removal to Cambridge — School Days — Juvenile Draw- ings — "Beetle and Wedge" — Apprenticed to Bufford — First Drawings Published — Studio in Boston 21 CHAPTER III. New York — The Great War. 1859-1863. ^tat. 23-27. Studio in Nassau Street — Studio in the University Building, Washington Square — Bohemian Life — His Friends — Lincoln's Inauguration — McClellan's Peninsular Campaign — First Oil Paintings — "The Sharpshooter on Picket Duty" — "Rations" — "Defiance" — " Home, Sweet Home" — "The Last Goose at Yorktown " • 34 CHAPTER IV. Early Works. 1864-1871. ^tat. 28-35. Pictures of Camp Life — Made an Academician — "The Bright " ' Side — "Pitching Quoits " — " Prisoners from the Front ' — First Voyage to Europe — What he did not do —-"The Sail- Boat" — Drawings for " Every Saturday " 51 's- viii CONTENTS CHAPTER V. Life in the Country. 1 872-1 876. ^tat. 36-40. Studio in West Tenth Street — "New England Country School" — " Snap the Whip" — A Summer on Ten-Pound Island — The ' Gloucester Watercolors — Urban Subjects — Last of the ' Harper' Weekly " Drawings — " The Two Guides" — Relations with La Farge 69 CHAPTER VL Among the Negroes. 1876-1880. ^tat. 40-44. "The Visit from the Old Mistress" — "Sunday Morning in Virginia" — "The Carnival" — An Episode in Petersburg — The Model who Ran Away — The Houghton Farm Watercolors ' " ' — ' The Shepherdess of Houghton Farm — " The Camp Fire — Gloucester again — Homer's Mastery in Composition . 85 CHAPTER Vn. Tynemouth — The English Series. I 881-1882. ^tat. 45-46. The Dwelling at Cullercoates — "Watching the Tempest" — " Perils of the Sea " — "A Voice from the Cliffs " — " Inside the Bar " — A Turning- Point in the Artist's Career — Watercolors Dealing with Storms and Shipwrecks 99 CHAPTER VHL Prout's Neck. 1884. ^tat. 48. How the Homer Brothers discovered and developed a Summer Resort in Maine — Description of the Place — Winslow Homer's Studio — His Garden — His Way of Living — Identification of his Masterpieces with Prout's Neck 109 CHAPTER IX. "The Life Line." 1884. ^tat. 48. The Story-Telling Picture — Sources of Prejudice against it — Various Comments on and Descriptions of " The Life Line" — Exhibitions in Boston — An Anecdote of a Commission for a Pic- ture which was declined 1 20 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER X. Nassau and Cuba. 1 885-1 886. iEtat. 49-50. A Winter in the Bahamas and the South Coast of Cuba — The Color of the Tropics — "Searchlight, Harbor Entrance, Santiago " ' de Cuba — " The Gulf Stream ' — Later Trips to Nassau, Ber- muda and Florida 128 CHAPTER XI. Marine Pieces with Figures. 1 885-1 888. ^tat. 49-52. "The Fog Warning" — " Lost on the Grand Banks " — " Hark! the Lark " — " Undertow " — " Eight Bells " — The Genesis of a Deep-Sea Classic . -137 CHAPTER XII. Etchings — Paintings of the Early Nineties. 1888-1892. ^tat. 52-56. The Series of Reproducdons of his Own Paintings — "Cloud Shadows" — "The West Wind" — "Signal of Distress" — "Summer Night" — "Huntsman and Dogs" — "Coast in Winter" 150 CHAPTER XIII. Milestones on the Road of Art. 1893— 1894. ^tat. 57-58. Honors at the World's Columbian Exposition — "The Fox Hunt" — " Storm-Beaten " — " Below Zero " — " High Cliff, Coast of Maine " — " Moonlight, Wood Island Light " — Adi- rondacks Watercolors . .165 CHAPTER XIV. The Portable Painting-house. 1 895-1 896. ^tat. 59-60. " Northeaster " — " Cannon Rock " — The First Journey to the Province of Quebec — "The Lookout — All's Well!" — " " Maine Coast " — " The Wreck " — " Watching the Breakers " — Honors at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — " Hauling in Anchor — Mr. Turner's Reminiscences of Homer 176 X CONTENTS CHAPTER XV. The Great Climacteric. 1896-1901. ^tat. 60-65. Reminiscences of Mr. Bixbee — Winslow Homer and his Father — On the Pittsburg Jury — "Flight of Wild Geese" — "A Light on the Sea" — Sale of the Clarke Collection — Honors in Paris — "Eastern Point" — "On a Lee Shore" — Letters — A Shipwreck 198 CHAPTER XVI. The O'B. Picture. 1901-1903. ^tat. 65-67. The Process of Making the "Early Morning after Storm at Sea" — A Peep behind the Scenes — A Lesson in Etiquette — The Temple Gold Medal — Off for Key West 212 CHAPTER XVn. Hours of Despondency. 1904-1908. ^tat. 68-72. ' " Kissing the Moon ' — An Unfinished Picture — Atlantic City — Advancing Age — " I no longer paint " — " Early Evening " — "Cape Trinity" —-The Loan Exhibition in Pittsburg — First Serious Sickness — Letters 223 CHAPTER XVni. Incidents of the Last Years. 190S— 1910. ^tat. 72-74. Aversion for Notoriety — The Rubber-Stamp Signature — Charac- teristic Sayings — Mural Paintings — " Right and Left " — " Drift- wood" — Foreign Opinion — Dread of Counterfeiters — Mr. Macbeth' s Visit — Questions that were never Answered . .237 CHAPTER XIX. Homer's Death. 19 10. ^tat. 74. The Last Sickness — Heart Failure — A Glorious Passing — The Funeral — Burial Place at Mount Auburn — His Will — The Me- morial Exhibitions of 1 9 1 1 in New York and Boston — The Ver- dict 250 CONTENTS xi APPENDIX 273 list of Pictures by Winslow Homer exhibited in the Exhibitions of the National Academy of Design, New York, from 1863 to 1910 276 List of Watercolors by Winslow Homer exhibited at the Exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society, New York, from 1867 to 1909 278 list of Oil Paintings by Winslow Homer exhibited at the Exhibi- tions of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, from 1888 to 1910 282 List of Works exhibited by Winslow Homer in the Exhibitions of the Society of American Artists, New York, from 1897 to 1903 . 283 List of Oil Paintings and Watercolors by Winslow Homer in the CoDection of Mr. Thomas B. Clarke of New York . .283 List of Works in the Loan Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Winslow Homer held at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in May and June, I908 285 List of Works in the ^'inslow Homer Memorial Exhibition held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 6 to March 19, 191 1 286 List of Works in the ^^^inslow Homer Memorial Exhibition held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 7 to March 1,1911 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 INDEX 297 ILLUSTRATIONS PORTR.\IT OF VVINSLOW HOMER AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-TWO Frontispiece From a photograph takers at Front's Neck, Maine, in igo8.