Winslow Homer and the Civil War

Oooo, I'm a huge Winslow Homer fan. I see some here that I need to save for my collection...
 
Prisoners_from_the_Front_1866.jpgWonder how many people who've seen this picture in Gettysburg didn't know it was actually from Petersburg?
 
Homer is definitely one of our American masters! There's lots of great scholarship about his Civil War paintings - Marc Simpson's "Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War"; Peter H. Woods' "Winslow Homer's Images of Black: The Civil War and Reconstruction"; and a plethora of articles. Here's the original oil of "The Sharpshooter":

Homer_Sharpshooter_1863.jpg


His Adirondack, Florida, and Bahamian watercolors are also especially gorgeous. I never thought I'd like paintings of fish, but after I saw Homer's, I was hooked (no pun intended!):

Homer_JumpingTrout_1889.jpg
"]
 
View attachment 1361Wonder how many people who've seen this picture in Gettysburg didn't know it was actually from Petersburg?

After painting this picture, Homer redid the head of the officer. He inserted an image of Barlow, whom he considered the best looking officer in the AoP. Homer wrote that his painting, Viewing Prisoners from the Front, made him famous at age 29. He regretted that he did didn't have a few more years to experiment and didn't have that well known picture compared to his later works. He did use the Matthew Brady photograph of the three Confederate stragglers/prisoners at Gettysburg as an inspiration.

The Sharpshooter and Home Sweet Home are wartime pictures which are part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery in WDC, along with his Maine and Bermuda/Bahamas pictures. The national Gallery had a major exhibition of Homer's works about five years ago. Included were about a half dozen wartime paintings. Personally, I think his painting of the young women with the horn to summon the farm hands to lunch and the Black sailor on a dismasted sailboat are his best works, although I am an admirer of his works.

Homer lived near Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME for the last years of his life and left a number of his works to the College.
 
After painting this picture, Homer redid the head of the officer. He inserted an image of Barlow, whom he considered the best looking officer in the AoP. Homer wrote that his painting, Viewing Prisoners from the Front, made him famous at age 29. He regretted that he did didn't have a few more years to experiment and didn't have that well known picture compared to his later works. He did use the Matthew Brady photograph of the three Confederate stragglers/prisoners at Gettysburg as an inspiration.

The Sharpshooter and Home Sweet Home are wartime pictures which are part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery in WDC, along with his Maine and Bermuda/Bahamas pictures. The national Gallery had a major exhibition of Homer's works about five years ago. Included were about a half dozen wartime paintings. Personally, I think his painting of the young women with the horn to summon the farm hands to lunch and the Black sailor on a dismasted sailboat are his best works, although I am an admirer of his works.

Homer lived near Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME for the last years of his life and left a number of his works to the College.

Great info. Thank you.
 
I got the opportunity about 15 years ago to see one of his paintings up close and personal in a private home in San Angelo, Texas. No museum velvet ropes, amazing lighting. It was incredible.
 
I have a copy of the "Anything for me if you please". It's an original from a Harper's Weekly, just the one page. The only thing is, mine is colored, and all the ones I've seen online of it are black and white. It wasn't very expensive, maybe $20.
 
I caught that in the movie and chuckled. Prisoners From the Front (I think that's the title) has always been one of my favorites.
 
Back
Top