International studio (34.1908)

IVinslow Homer

ever, in the elimination of detail, in the directness
and terseness of his brushwork that Mr. Homer has
emulated the Japanese, though not deliberately or
consciously. All great art is built upon the same
fundamental principles, and these Mr. Homer has
grasped.
I have dwelt upon this at some length, hot only on
account of its accidental bearing upon a much-dis-
cussed point, but because it seems to indicate that
at this comparatively early period there was some-
thing in the paintings of Winslow Homer which
differentiated them from others; something which
while imperfectly understood gave token of large
potentiality. Indeed, turning again to the review
in question, there is found reason to believe that
thirty years ago Mr. Homer had developed a dis-
tinctive style and manifested specific characteris-
tics. At that time, we are told, he exhibited the
ability to lay hold of essentials and to think his own
thoughts; that his pictures possessed a certain
gratifying simplicity, quietude and sobriety, and
that his work was straightforward and bold,
though technically unconventional. This is still
true of Mr. Homer’s painting. Handling his
brush with greater freedom and commonly display-
ing a looser technique, he is at all times pains-
taking, and paints and repaints his canvases with-
out, however, damaging their effect. One of his
most recent productions, a superb picture of fisher-
folk on the Maine coast, entitled Early Evening,
purchased this winter by Air. Charles L. Freer, of
Detroit, was begun in 1882 and completed in 1907—-
such, indeed, is Air. Homer’s eagerness to arrive
absolutely at the truth.
In strong contrast to his works in oil are his paint-
ings in water-color, which, while equally strong,
vital and unconventional, are more crude, impres-
sionistic and immature. Pure color is used, every
stroke tells, and not one apparently is laid on which
is unnecessary. In their disregard for the ameni-
ties of the subject they are almost brutal, but
through their honesty they are absolutely con-
vincing. Keenly intelligent, they are a little savage
in their simplicity and force, but better, perhaps,
than anything else they indicate the personality and
genius of the painter. Mr. Homer handles his
brush not as a duellist his rapier, with infinite cun-
ning, but as the woodsman his axe, with force, cer-
tainty and precision. One may not like Mr. Ho-
mer’s water-colors, and yet find them alluring—
unlovely some may be, and yet genuinely im-
pressive. Of course, in these as in all else there are
degrees of merit; the earlier ones are more pictorial
but less individual than the later productions, and

with this medium, as with oils, Air. Homer has
scored not only successes but failures.
In 1867 and again in 1882 Mr. Homer made
trips abroad, going each time to England and set-
tling down in Cornwall to sketch the fisherfolk and
the coast. The summer of 1881 he spent at Glou-
cester, Mass., and though from time to time he
made trips into the Adirondack region and south to
Bermuda—trips which bore abundant fruit—he
was attracted more and more by the rugged New
England coast and the sea, and, finally, took up a
permanent residence at Scarboro, Me. It is there,
withdrawn entirely from association of other artists,
that Air. Homer’s greatest works have been pro-
duced .
It takes a great and a strong man to labor alone,
men of small caliber and weak conviction requiring
the stimulus of fellow-workers. The world of
nature, while tending to enlarge men’s souls and
engender big thoughts, is apt to paralyze action and
silence speech. Air. Homer has, however, been
strong enough to stand the test. He has been
dauntless and untiring—searching out great truths
by himself and accomplishing with unconscious
complaisance what other painters have hesitated to
attempt. Fie has dealt with facts and transcribed
what he saw with utmost realism. His water-
colors give indication of haste and emotion, but his
oil paintings are flacid and grave. His pictures
are dramatic, but never nervous; they are big and
stern, spacious and profound. In painting the
waves beating on the shore he has indicated the
resistance of the rocks, the power and tirelessness
of the sea. The water he represents has always
weight and depth and motion—endless motion;
his pictures are not interpretations, but the thing
itself.
It is these coast scenes which have given Winslow
Homer chief celebrity, but it is not they 'alone
which entitle him to remembrance. Strangely
enough, though withdrawn from the world of men
and living the life of a recluse, Mr. Homer has been
most concerned at all times by the human problem,
and scarcely a picture he has ever painted is without
this fundamental element of interest. It is not, it
would seem, the pictorial quality of the sea which
appeals to him, but its relation to man; not the
rocks and the waves which interest him, but the
people whose fortunes they control. The rugged
courage, the honest vigor, the unaffected simplicity
of those who go down to the sea in ships as well as
those who battle with the elements on land have
moved Air. Homer and found enduring expression
in his paintings. Witness, for example, the Look-

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