ART SERVICES WRITING
Written for Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services for Private Collection 18 September 1998.
Winslow Homer
(1836-1910)
Eight Bells
Etching on vellum
18 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches, 1887
Winslow Homer was perhaps the most beloved American painter of the nineteenth century, a strong but quiet artist whose inspired hand touched the heart of a nation struggling desperately to establish an identity of its own. At a time when American art was achieving its first wave of international praise as a result of the overwhelming landscapes that were being produced and championed by the Hudson River School, Winslow Homer expressed with graceful virtuosity the emotional landscape of the American spirit.
There are few painters who capture with such ease and intensity the emotional states of their subjects with respect to the environments in which their subjects exist. An artist who loved the outdoors as much as the creativity that propelled him through life, Homer illustrated with depth and clarity the fragile relationship between man and nature in the great American landscape.
Born and raised in Boston then Cambridge, Homer and his two brothers were privileged with a respectable family name and loving parents. Homer’s mother was a painter, and his father encouraged him to make art by bringing home tools and visual references that would assist the aspiring young draftsman. Homer taught himself to draw, and when the time came his father arranged an apprenticeship for Winslow with Bufford Lithograph in Boston.
Although Homer would refer to his apprenticeship with Bufford as “slavery”, he left the company in 1857 as a mature draftsman with the opportunities a decent trade can offer. He went to work for Ballou’s Pictorial then Harper’s Weekly, with whom he illustrated extensively once he moved to New York City in 1859. Subsidized by commercial etchings and illustrations that would always be a means of income for him, Homer began life study classes at the National Acadamy of Design and started to paint for the first time. Higher education in art at the time generally meant studies in Europe, a goal that Homer began to set for himself. But the Civil War broke out, and the young artist was sent by Harper’s to the front lines, which became the catalyst that would turn the master draftsman into one of America’s most notable painters.
As with many nineteenth century American creators who struggled to forge a uniquely American vision, Winslow Homer disregarded the prominent styles of English and French painting that dominated Western art at the time and focussed on the American people in their native landscape. His Civil War paintings and etchings were hailed for their bold yet sensitive depictions of Americans at war, and though some writers criticized Homer for the loose, rough finish in paintings such as Prisoner’s From The Front of 1866 , they also hailed him as an original American talent.
Although Homer often painted his subjects in peaceful or playful meditations with the outdoors, his reputation is built solidly on a series of later works that discuss man’s eternal tug-of-war with the unforgiving elements, so brilliantly represented in the Eight Bells etching of 1887. Eight Bells illustrates two sailors taking a noon reading with sextants, as the title refers to the sounding of eight bells at four, eight and twelve in the morning and evening. Regarded as one of his finest etchings, the monumentality of the figures cast against the threatening sky and uneasy water creates a quiet tension that resonates with a looming intensity that is Winslow Homer at his very best.
Eight Bells weaves together all of Winslow Homer’s most impressive qualities and fascinations as master draftsman and storyteller. His design and composition are flawless, and his space is built strategically and effectively. The sailors are pulled into the center of the picture by a strong light that skips off their foul weather gear, reinforcing the virtuosity with which the artist manipulates atmospherics and composition. Homer somehow manages to invest the two sailors in Eight Bells with a similar measure of heroicism that bounds from the courageous rescuers in The Lifeline of 1884 and Undertow of 1886, a remarkable feat given that the two sailors in Eight Bells are standing still and performing a fairly regular task. There is an impending sense of calm before or between storms in Eight Bells, which Homer created so successfully in paintings like The Fog Warning and The Herring Net from the same period. In 1880 he moved to Prout’s Neck, Maine, where the aging genius would live in relative solitude for the remaining thirty years of his life. The visceral Eight Bells painting of 1886 and etchings of 1887 were the last of a three year series of ambitious sea pictures which served to fortify Homer’s significance as a crucial nineteenth century American master.
Homer’s only well documented love affair was with the land and sea. Aside from a stream of written correspondence with art dealers and his beloved family, Winslow Homer remained focussed on a quiet and creatively prolific life. The magic of his narratives captures the heart of a blossoming American philosophy, whether he is painting children at play, women at the shore, or men fighting in war or struggling to tame nature. The breadth of his fascination with the American human condition, paired with the facility and determination with which he expressed his vision, ensures a place for Winslow Homer as one of America’s greatest artists.