Summer 2017

Homer left New York in 1881 to spend a year and a half in a fishing village on the north coast of England. He returned late in 1882 with a revolutionized style. Last seen at the watercolor exhibitions with sketchy marine scenes and charming shepherdess subjects, he now showed an array of heroic figure compositions, masterfully painted in a traditional English watercolor style. Initially shocked by the change, critics were won over by the majestic work exhibited in 1883, including the monumental Inside the Bar, with its theme of human fortitude in the face of nature. With such work, Homer reasserted his place at the head of the American watercolor school, but now in alliance with the Victorian mainstream rather than the Impressionist avant-garde. Homer’s younger friend, Edwin A. Abbey, was also raised in pen-and-ink illustration and watercolor; he did not paint in oils until he was forty. The watercolor exhibitions gave Abbey a chance to prove himself as a “fine artist,” capable of producing large, elaborate compositions that rivalled the impact of oils. Abbey’s masterpiece, An Old Song, showcased his brilliant technique, which embraced a wide repertory of effects, from broad washes to fine detail. It also demonstrated his historical genius, able to imagine and construct a rich, tender narrative from the past to beguile audiences grown uneasy by the pace of modern change. Inviting the viewer to tour a late- eighteenth-century English interior, Abbey tells the story of a young woman whose song conjures up an even deeper past for an older generation lost in reverie. With such exhibition pieces, Abbey joined Homer—whose new English work was similar in ambition and complexity—at the head of the American watercolor school. Summer 116 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911), An Old Song, 1885. Watercolor and opaque watercolor over graphite on paper, 28 x 48 inches. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection (1937.268). Winslow Homer (1836–1910), Inside the Bar, 1883. Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper, 16 x 29 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Louise Ryals Arkell, in memory of her husband, Bartlett Arkell, 1954 (54.183).