Looking Out

1875 · Drawing

Gegevens

Inventarisnummer: 2014.18.20

Intussen, in het leven van Winslow Homer

Het hele leven

summer 1873
Summer in Gloucester: watercolour begins
In the summer of 1873 in Gloucester Homer began painting in watercolour regularly, naturally and confidently from the start; critics were puzzled at first (“A child with an ink bottle could not have done worse”), but the watercolours sold more readily and considerably improved his finances. From then on he seldom travelled without paper, brushes and water-based paints.
1875
Gives up illustration for painting
In 1875 Homer, after nearly twenty years as an illustrator, quit commercial illustration and vowed to live on his paintings and watercolours alone. Despite his excellent critical reputation, his finances remained precarious.
1876
The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
“Snap the Whip” and “Breezing Up” were shown at the Centennial Exposition; the New York Tribune wrote that it could not remember a picture in any exhibition that could be named alongside “Breezing Up”. Henry James confessed that he detested Homer's subjects of the time, yet “to reward his audacity, he has incontestably succeeded”.
c. 1876
Visits to Virginia
Around 1876 Homer visited Petersburg, Virginia (apparently to see what had become of the lives of former slaves), and painted rural African American life, the most unaffected views of it at the time, such as “Dressing for the Carnival” (1877).
1877
First show at the Boston Art Club

Alle werken

Buren in huis: National Gallery of Art

Museumpagina

Over hetzelfde thema · Meer

Alle werken over dit thema

late 1870s

A recluse in Gloucester

In the late 1870s, whether from disappointments with women or some other emotional turmoil, Homer became reclusive, abandoned urban social life and lived instead in Gloucester, for a while even in the secluded Eastern Point Lighthouse with the keeper's family. Watching the fishermen, the sea and the marine weather, he rediscovered his love of the sea and found a rich source of themes in it.