While a distinction between fine art and illustration is often made, the work of Winslow Homer certainly appears to bridge the two. When comparing Homer's engravings to his paintings the artistic intent of his work is evident. Often Homer would take an engraving and develop it further as an oil painting. However, Homer occasionally would reverse this process. This interchangeability between a wood engraving, intended for mass reproduction, and oil painting reveals that regardless of medium Homer's artwork had substance. As an artist Homer had a clear message that he wanted expressed through each of his creations. This intention is what makes his images more than simply illustrations. As Albert Dorne stated “The form in which an artist chooses to create is secondary” (Dorne 1). Both Homer's woodblock engravings and their matching oil paintings were created with artistic intent and therefore gives them significance as pieces of fine art. In my essay I will compare and contrast Homer's oil painting Snap the Whip, 1872, oil on canvas with Snap the Whip, 1873, wood engraving published by Harper's Weekly. These two pieces reflect Homers's process of translating one of his painting to a wood engraving.
A group of young boys playing a game presumably called snap the whip is the subject of both Homer's Snap the Whip images. The object of the game is to form a human chain by joining hands. As one boy anchors the human whip, the other boys run forward trying to avoid breaking away from the others. In both of Homer's works he depicts the human whip in motion with two boys on the end of the chain being thrown off. The setting of the images is an open field dotted with flowers and stones. A small home appears behind the boys and on the left ...
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... message. The exclusion of color in the wood engraving limits the available channels for Homer to illustrate his intended message. The image with the color shows not only criticism but also hopefulness of what America could be. With that being said both images are true works of art. Homer was not only able to create beautiful artwork but also imbed socially relevant narratives in the medium of his choice.
Works Cited
Atkinson, D. Scott, Jochen Wierich, and Sue Taylor. Winslow Homer in Gloucester. Chicago: Terra Museum of American Art, 1990. Print.
Dorne, Albert. "Is Illustration Art?" Ed. Walt Reed and Roger Reed. The Illustrator in America, 1880- 1980: A Century of Illustration. New York: Published for the Society of Illustrators by Madison Square Press, 1984. 7. ISBN: 0942604032.)
Prown, Jules D. "Winslow Homer in His Art." American Art 1.1 (1987): 30. Print.
Homer, The Odyssey, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, ed. Maynard Mack, Expanded Edition, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), pp. 219-503.
“Children embodied innocence and the promise of America's future and were depicted by many artists and writers during the 1870s. Here Homer reminisces about rural simplicity and reflects on the challenges of the complex post–Civil War world. Released from the confines of a one-room schoolhouse, exuberant boys engage in a spirited game. As the population shifted to cities and the little red schoolhouse faded from memory, this image would have evoked nostalgia for the nation's agrarian past. The boys' bare feet signal childhood's freedom but their suspenders are associated with manhood's responsibilities. Their game, which requires teamwork, strength, and calculation, may allude to the reunited nation. Observed from right to left, Homer's boys hang on to one another, strain to stay connected, run in perfect harmony, and fall
In 1911, Rockwell illustrated his first book, “Tell Me Why Stories”. Two Years later he contributed to “Boys Life”, He soon became art director of the magazine. Commissions for other children’s magazines, among them “St. Nicholas”, “Youths Companion” and “American Boys”, soon followed. In 1915, Rockwell moved to New Rochelle, New York, home to many of America’s finest Illustrators. He studied the work of older illustrators while painting crisply, painted renditions of fresh-faced kids and dogs.
Examining the formal qualities of Homer Watson’s painting Horse and Rider In A Landscape was quite interesting. I chose to analyze this piece as apposed to the others because it was the piece I liked the least, therefore making me analyze it more closely and discover other aspects of the work, besides aesthetics.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is regarded as one of American’s greatest artists in the 19th Century. Many of his works, such as “The Cotton Pickers,” “The Bright Side,” and “Prisoners from the Front,” are still very well-known and famous pieces of art. At the start of his artist career, he was a print maker and design chief for Harper’s Weekly Magazine; but during the course of the Civil War, his art took on a much deeper meaning as a result of it (“Winslow Homer and his paintings”). Homer’s works began to reflect on the effects the Civil War had on the nation, her people, and himself (Wood). “Near Andersonville” is one of Homer’s least known works (having gone unknown of until the 1960s) that had been one of his first works focusing on the African
There is a great deal of critical influences which John Tenniel brought to the field of illustration and to explore this, one must look into his work and his life to acknowledge how this impacted on Illustration and society in general.
Read, Hebert Edward, Sir. Discovering Art: The Illustrating Story of Art Through the Ages. Vol.
Homer. ?The Odyssey,? World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack ed. Ed. Coptic St.: Prentice, 1995.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
Vose, Marcia L. Forging a National Identity: 19th Century American Paintings. Boston, MA: Voss Galleries, 2012. Print.
The Country School is an example of Homer’s early works influenced by his time in the war. While it is an oil on canvass genre painting, Homer is remembered for his versatility in style and media he used. The painting can be found at the St. Louis Art Museum in the American Art gallery.
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Vol 2.13th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning, 2010.
The Spiritual in Art : Abstract Painting 1895 – 1985 (New York: Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Abbeville Press, 1985)
Homer is said to have been blind and told his stories orally. Because the facts of Homer’s life when he was born or died, where he lived, who he was- remain unknown and shall most likely never be known. Many scholars have doubted the existence of a “Homer” and point to his texts as the work of a collection of authors over a long period of time.