Biography of Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer is widely regarded as one of the forerunners of the great nineteenth-century American Painters. Homer was a New Englander by birth and long ancestry. Circa 1636, Captain John Homer, an Englishman living in the west of England and active in maritime shipping, immigrated to America. He settled in Massachusetts where, almost two centuries later, his descendant Winslow Homer was born in Boston on February 24th 1836. Winslow grew up in the nearby village of Cambrige, a short walk from Harvard University. His mother was, like his father, of old New England Yankee stock, and he undoubtedly inherited her artistic talent. She encouraged him as a child, when he started to show an aptitude for drawing, she was a skillful amateur watercolorist. Around the age of eighteen Homer became apprenticed to a Boston lithographer, John H. Bufford, here he learned to copy other people's drawings onto printing stones, he also produced sheet-music covers and other commercial works. His only form of training was at local art classes, where he learned the basic principles and styles of art. He also studied under Frederick Rondel, a well-known painter in Boston. This lasted for roughly two to
three years until he grew tired and set himself up as a freelance illustrator at the age of 21. Much of his work was published in the newly popular pictorial weeklies including Harper's Weekly, which was one of the most popular magazines in its day. His illustrations almost always focused on the life he observed around him in the city and country. He drew his illustrations on wood blocks that were then engraved by others, following the usual practice of the time. In 1859 he moved from Boston to New York to be closer to the Harper's office and also because he was now determined to become a painter. New York was the center of the American art world. He took a few lessons at the National Academy but soon discontinued them, finding them of little value to the skill of his work. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Homer began to report scenes of military life. He drew a great number of the scenes from the war for the front cover, most of them from the battles in Virginia. The sketches he created, highly focused and personal vignettes of the sometimes dangerous, sometimes lonely lives of individual soldiers. Homer's time on the front in Virginia also inspired him to compose his first paintings, works such as Prisoners from the Front, one of his most famous paintings. Many people were overwhelmed with his great ability to capture Civil War scenes with such great detail, and consider them some of the most powerful and authentic records of Union troops experience. Homer's paintings did not stop here. He submitted paintings to annual exhibitions of the National Academy of Design and was elected a full Academician, which is an outstanding achievement given to artists for their great works of art. In 1866 he made the first of his two trips abroad, spending ten months in France. During this time he painted Paris
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1236
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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