Winslow Homer - Softcover

Cikovsky, Nicolai; Kelly, Franklin; Homer, Winslow; National Gallery Of Art (U. S.); Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston; Metropolitan Museum Of Art (New York, N. Y.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0894682172 ISBN 13: 9780894682179

Publisher: Natl Gallery of Art, 1995

Synopsis

Winslow Homer is considered among the greatest American artists of the nineteenth century. This book examines the immensity of Homer's artistic accomplishments, focusing not only on his masterpieces in various media but also on the suites of works on the same subject that reflect the artist's essentially modern practices of thinking and working serially and thematically.

About this title

From Library Journal:

The 19th-century realist Winslow Homer first gained wide renown with his Civil War battlefield illustrations in Harper's Weekly. A year spent in Paris after the war led to a greater acuity of vision, and by the mid-1870s he was one of the leading progenitors of naturalism and the most celebrated American painter of his day. Known for his watercolors, which have all the intensity and ardor of the most accomplished oil paintings, the solid outlines and luminosity of his surfaces show little influence from his contemporaries the Impressionists. His art was unquestionably individual and native. He was a reclusive outdoorsman who captured dozens of scenes highlighting the milieus he loved: seafaring vessels, Adirondack and Canadian hunting grounds, Bahamian beaches, and the rocky coast of Maine, to which he retreated in his last years. This outstanding new book is the catalog of a retrospective of 235 paintings touring East Coast museums?the largest gathering of his work ever. Cikovsky and Kelly (curators of American and British art at the National Gallery of Art) divide his career into eight chronological chapters, each with a straightforward, expository essay securely planting the work in a geographical and biographical context. The format is large but unostentatious, striking the perfect balance between text and illustration. This is easily the fairest, most intelligent, and best survey to date on this popular American master.?Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Winslow Homer (1836^-1910) was in the news as a comprehensive retrospective of his magnificent paintings and watercolors opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., an exhibition that will live on between the covers of this spectacular volume. Cikovsky and Kelly, curators at the National Gallery, present a contextually rich and vibrant analysis of Homer's life and groundbreaking work. A self-taught artist with an "almost sensuous love of paint," Homer, like so many of his contemporaries, was deeply affected by the Civil War. His early illustrations and paintings demonstrate his "technical strength and assurance; color, modeling, and drawing; truthfulness, and lack of sentimentality," qualities he would elevate to new levels as he moved on to paint candid scenes of everyday life. There is an earthy grace to his dignified, hardworking figures, many of whom gaze contemplatively out into the distance, a gaze not unlike that of the artist himself. The authors track Homer's major themes, all of which are intrinsically connected to place, and discuss the progression from ideology to aesthetics, from shimmering pastoral romance to dark and stormy seas. Homer was a master not only of technique but also of interpreting light, motion, and our complex relationship with nature. Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: Natl Gallery of Art
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0894682172
• ISBN 13: 9780894682179
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 420