Summer 2017

Homer had vacationed in the Adirondacks of New York state as a young man, but he rediscovered this landscape in 1889 and found new levels of artistic achievement in the next decade, depicting woodland subjects. A passionate fisherman himself, he understood the charms of the sport and the therapeutic beauty of the wilderness. Among his admirers, anglers enjoyed the reverie of a quiet mountain lake and a moment of victory, deftly drawn, while connoisseurs gasped over his virtuoso effects in watercolor, such as the quickly scraped arc of the fishing line. With an appeal based on aspects of American national identity, Homer’s watercolors celebrated individualism, the power of the landscape, and the ideal of oneness with nature. Homer’s first visit to Bermuda and Cuba in 1885 launched a series of trips to the Caribbean over the next two decades that would inspire some of his most memorable watercolors. The beautiful bodies of the sponge divers and fishermen of the Bahamas and Key West appear regularly in his work, their gleaming skin set against the blue of the sea and the sky. His masterpiece, After the Hurricane, tells the dark side of their story. Is the huddled figure alive or dead? Mere debris, like the battered boat, humans have no privilege in the face of a storm. Homer matched the sober meditation of his subject with virtuoso handling, showing delicacy in the modeling of the figure and breadth in the sky and water. 2017 Antiques & Fine Art 117 Winslow Homer (1836–1910), Boy Fishing, 1892. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 14⅝ x 21 inches. San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; Purchased with funds provided by the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr., and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation and Friends of the San Antonio Museum Association (86.130). Winslow Homer (1836–1910), After the Hurricane, Bahamas, 1899. Watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor, rewetting, blotting, and scraping, over graphite, on moderately thick, moderately textured wove paper, 14 ⁄ x 21⅜ inches. The Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection (1933.1235).