Product Description
American painter Winslow Homer (1836-1910) created some of the most breathtaking and influential watercolours in the history of the medium. This handsome volume provides a comprehensive look at Homer's technical and artistic practice as a watercolourist, and at the experiences that shaped his remarkable development. Focusing on 25 rarely seen watercolours from the Art Institute's collection, along with 75 other related watercolours, gouaches, drawings, and paintings - including many of the artist's characteristic subjects - this book proposes a new understanding of Homer's techniques as they evolved over his career.Accessibly written essays consider each of the featured works in detail, examining the relationship between monochrome drawing and watercolour and the artist's lifelong interest in new optical and colour theories. In particular, they show how his sojourn in England, where he encountered leading British marine watercolourists and the dynamic avant-garde art scene, precipitated an abrupt change in technique and subject matter upon his return home.Conservators address the fragility of these watercolours, which are prone to fading due to light exposure, and demonstrate, through pioneering research on Homer's pigments and computer-assisted imaging, how the works have changed over time. Several of Homer's greatest watercolours are digitally 'restored', providing an exhilarating glimpse of the original impact of Homer's groundbreaking colour experiments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Great for all Watercolor fans and artists
I absolutely LOVE this book.My watercolor teacher assigned this book as our text for class.I have never seen a book like this ever.They took a microscopic look at Homer's paintings to determine how he did what he did and have done a wonderful job of describing the techniques.While beginning watercolor students would probably need to supplement this text with a more step-by-step book (I favor anything by Michael Crespo) I would rate this book as indespensible for anyone who loves watercolor... and not just the artist, but the viewer as well.Truly, this book is a masterpiece in itself.It's worth every penny they are asking.

buy it
I agree with all the good things said about this wonderful book! It is very well printed and the illustrations are beautiful! It is indeed very interesting to read.Only one thing about the graphic design: the coloured titles are the most ugly thing I have ever seen in an artbook, it makes it all so cheap looking. Bad taste!

A beautiful book
Watercolours by Winslow Homer: Color of light(Art Institute of Chicago)When I placed my order I had not had the possibility to see the book in advance, so I didn't know what it would be like.First of all I expected to get a book with good colour illustrations about W. Homer's watercolours and of course with some information about the artist, his life and paintings. I was very surprised because not only does the book have good colour illustrations, but also very detailed information about the techniques, types of paper, pigments that W. Homer used in his watercolours and in the different periods of his life. A beautriful book for people who do or simply love watercolours.
Beatrice Vaccari

Simply the Best
As a painter and an art educator, I have an abundance of books on paintings, painters and technique.This book beautifully combines all three and somehow transcends every other book on Winslow Homer or professional watercolor technique that I've experienced.Of course, it isn't a primer on watercolor; it is a scholarly, yet very accessible, treatise on the watermedia artwork of one of my two favorite American painters (Sargent being the other).
Besides, the book is gorgeous.The plates are excellent, readily conjuring up both the ruggedness and the lyricism of Homer's technique, as well as the abstraction in the realism, and the metaphor threaded throughout his work.

ATerrific Achievement
This is the most interesting, informative and insightful book I've ever read about Homer's artwork and his intense struggle to master color. ... Read more

Product Description
Winslow Homer's watercolors rank among the greatest pictorial legacies of this country. Winslow Homer's first medium was oil painting, although to make ends meet, he did commercial illustration and chronicled the New York City social scene. Eventually, Homer withdrew from city life altogether to settle at Prout's Neck on the rocky New England coast. There he turned to watercolor, in part for financial reasons (watercolors were easier to sell), but the newly popular medium also enabled him to capture his impressions of scenery and landscapes encountered during his many travels with an immediacy and directness impossible in the more time-consuming oils. Of his more than 700 watercolors, over 140 are reproduced here, dating from the 1870s to the turn of the century and ranging from pastoral to narrative, dramatic to serene. Miles Unger's text provides insight into the artist's technical mastery of the medium and discusses the importance of Homer's watercolors within the larger body of his work. 140 color illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Beautiful Book
This is a nice collection of watercolor images by Winslow Homer. The text, while a little flowery at ties, gives some nice insight into the artist. The reproductions are what really makes this book a keeper. I refer to it regularly for inspiration and to study how this artist worked.

Master Pieces!
The book is full with Winslow Homer's master pieces. Most painting images are big and clear, so you can see his strong brush strokes easily. The only minor flaw is the colors of the reproduction tend to be on bit of "dull" side - not as rich and sharp as to the real paintings.

A Book to Enjoy
I am delighted with this book.Although there is extensive text, it is foremost a picture book of Homer's watercolors.Beyond the fine illustrated introduction, every spread of pages contains at least one of his pictures.Many of the pictures are full page in this generously dimensioned book, and those that cross the gutter show the care in placement exercised by the author and designer in minimizing any loss of impact.Enormous care was taken that no picture detail was lost in such two page printings.The ten chapters parallel Homer's life, and there is a sense of picking up of the easel, canvas, and paint box along with him as he moves to his considerably different venues.I enjoyed this book so much that I was inspired to hunt down my ancient watercolor equipment and try a few imitations!

Winslow Homer's amazing watercolors...after all these years, still an inspiration
Hard to imagine a more inspiring watercolorist, historically or right now.Homer had a sure touch with his wonderful, calligraphic brushstrokes.He depicted life around him and makes it feel as real as the view out my own window--I'm there.

The book is beautifully produced, with many crisp illustrations to pore over.Even after well over 100 years, we still can learn contemporary techniques from this man.

wonderful
i love the book. It has many good prints. It's great for watercolorists to see how the master did it. ... Read more

Product Description
The First Major Critical Survey on the Artist in a Decade; Includes All Major Paintings.

WINSLOW HOMER: AN AMERICAN VISION, by Randall C. Griffin, is the first major critical survey on the life and work of Homer, one of America's best-loved artists, in the last decade.The book features every one of his major paintings alongside a remarkable selection of his lesser-known etchings and woodcuts.Griffin's thoroughly researched, yet readable study, not only presents a full account of Homer's life and work, but also a fresh and provocative reassessment of his place in the history of American art.

Randall Griffin, Associate Professor of Art History at Southern Methodist University and an authority on Homer, begins his study of the life and works of the artist with the astute observation, "Like the poems of Walt Whitman, the pictures of Georgia O'Keeffe, the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the music of Duke Ellington, the works of Winslow have helped shape America's view of itself."Griffin argues that Homer's work exemplifies the aspiration to create specifically American subjects and a specifically American character.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was born in Boston, Massachusetts the same year that Davey Crockett died at the Alamo. He began his career a magazine illustrator and soon becoming a regular contributor to Harper's Weekly.In the early 1860's, Homer was sent by his editor to the front lines of The Civil War, where he began to work on woodcuts and lithographs of wartime encampments, some of his lesser-known pieces that are included in this monograph.In the post-war years Homer turned his attention to the American countryside and its people, and produced Snap the Whip, a painting thought by many to be his best work.This painting was embraced by critics as a nationalist masterpiece, reaffirming American ideals and values that had been lost during the war.In 1883, Homer moved to the New England fishing village of Prout's Neck, Maine and, utilizing his watercolor skills, began what was to become his best-known period of seascapes and nautical scenes.

Griffin presents an academic yet approachable study of this American classic, expanding on the criticisms and themes of Homer's work, such as post-war American values, the relationship between nature and man, the American pastoral, and the loss of manhood control.WINSLOW HOMER: AN AMERICAN VISION presents an exceptional array of Homer's gorgeous paintings, sketches and watercolors and is the most up to date monograph available on the artist.This beautiful selection of works, paired with Griffin's original research and fresh interpretation, makes this a timeless book that will compliment any library as well as satisfy the needs of scholars and general readers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Winslow Homer: An American Vision
My book was bought as a gift for my boss who has always admired Winslow Homer and loved this book.

A powerful, recommended pick.
The works of Winslow Homer are already well familiar to any interested in American art: they captured the American Civil War and, later, scenes of early America as a whole, presenting a range of styles and themes - so it's surprising to note this book is the first in-depth critical survey written in the last decade. Here all his major paintings appear along with a number of etchings and woodcuts to compliment a blend of biography and critical art survey. Full-page color prints not only analyze the works; they offer insights into the public's reaction to scenes, settings, and perspectives. A powerful, recommended pick.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Product Description
With close analysis of Homer's art and of the personal challenges he faced throughout his life, Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation is the most comprehensive study to date of the relationship between the artist's work and the psychological stages of his life. Elizabeth Johns uses theories advanced by Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson to look at Homer's evolution as a painter and a person within the context of the continuing dynamics of his family. Her incisive and absorbing readings of the artist's work take into account the developmental stages of young, middle, and late adulthood, analyzing what Homer painted at the various turning points in his life.With this psychosocial approach, Johns examines the wood-engraved illustrations of Homer's early career in relationship to the values of his family; his images of the Civil War in the context of his young manhood; his paintings of the social scene and young women's place in it in connection with his own potential for marriage; his images of fisherwomen at Cullercoats and fishermen at Prout's Neck as they relate to his interior vision during middle age; and his intrigue with the sea in his late works as an identification with the larger processes of the universe. With more than seventy-five black-and-white illustrations and forty color plates of arresting images by this American master, Winslow Homer takes into account all available documentation, including the rich trove of the artist's correspondence at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and his entire body of work-illustrations for wood engravings, watercolors, and oils.40 color illustrations, 77 b/w photographs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Winslow Homer
This is one of the most instructive books on painting that I have read.I could understand the concepts so well. Now I hope I can make use of them.Beautiful!

InsightfulAdjunctto the Art of Winslow Homer
Considered by most art historians to be one of the more important American artists, Winslow Homer was essentially self-taught and that fact informs his prolific span of works as much from the progressive technical maturity of his paintings and drawings as from the intuitive approach to his subjects that, at time, 'over-schooling' can flatten.

Elizabeth Johns has written an engrossing study of how Homer's life and psychological development are evident in the various stages of his work.Never cloying or intrusive in demeanor, Johns intertwines facts gleaned from correspondence and from criticism and Homer's responses to same to paint her own portrait of a man at odds with the world in some ways and in other ways as an integral observer of such phenomena as his passion for the sea.

Johns' writing is so facile that the book could comfortably exist without illustration, but add to the power of her writing the fine reproductions of both black and white and richly colored plates of Homer's paintings and this becomes a book that will satisfy even those who have questioned Homer's importance in American art history.A fine read.Grady Harp, November 05 ... Read more

Product Description
This book discusses and reproduces more than two hundred paintings, watercolors, and drawings that span Winslow Homer`s career, focusing not only on Homer`s masterpieces in various media but also on the suites of works on the same subject that reflect the artist`s essentially modern practice of thinking and working serially and thematically. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Condition of book exceeded expectations
The Winslow Homer catalog that I purchased from the Amazon reseller arrived in pristine condition, even though it was listed as in 'very good' condition in the reseller's description. A great deal; I paid as much for the shipping and handling as I did for the catalog, which sells new for $55.

Truth in Advertising
I was told that this was a hard cover book.It's not.Oh well.I'll give it to my kid's school library and continue to look for one for my home library.

Homerandthe sea
I liked the book, has hundreds of oil paintings and many of the watercolors of Homer, about everything that has to do with the sea where it is a true master. The reason for placing four stars and not five is not that there are so many color illustrations of every page, as expect of a large book. But like is a very good buy for lovers of Homer

Taking Winslow Homer Seriously
Too often museums and writers take the prodigious output of the 19th century American artist Winslow Homer lightly, even at times dismissing him as inconsequential in the mainstream of important art.This magnificent volume whould change that once and for all.

Essayists and curators Nicolai Cikovsky andFranklin Kelly, with significant contributions by writers Judith Walsh and Charles Brock, have not only created a superb collection of Homer's works in all media, they have also taken the time to reevaluate Homer in terms of his place among his colleagues of his day, his subsequent isolationism when he communicated with nature along the coast of Maine, creating come of the most mystically beautiful works form an American artist, and an overview of how history has treated him.

The result is a hefty volume with more valuable insights and well written essays that for once truly illuminate the images generously placed throughout the volume.This may have started out to be a catalogue to accompany a traveling exhibition, but its long shelf life is assured by the high quality of every aspect of the book.Highly recommended for art lovers and art historians alike.Grady Harp, January 06

A nice taste of Winslow Homer
I'd been looking for a book about Winslow Homer for a while and was delighted to find this one. Kate Jennings' copy about his life and art are very good and the 68 color prints are large and on glossy paper. The prints are not top notch, but very nice. If you're looking for a nice collection of Homer's work without breaking the bank, this is for you. ... Read more

Product Description
Though a Bostonian by birth and upbringing, Winslow Homer lived and maintained his studio in New York City for twenty-five years, establishing himself as a leading figure in New York s art world. In 1881, determined to broaden his status as a painter, Homer journeyed to Great Britain. During his trip, major changes appeared in nearly everything he did as a painter. The changes came so rapidly during his first months abroad that there can be little doubt that the crucial turning point occurred during his first weeks in London. After his return to New York in November of 1882 and during his later years in Maine, the sequence of major oil paintings that came from his brush owed much, in the most fundamental ways, to transformations that began in London.

Tatham s Winslow Homer in London: A New York Artist Abroad, 1881-1882 is the first to examine in detail this preeminent American painter s crucial weeks in London during his year and half in Great Britain. Tatham presents new information concerning Homer s time in the city, the centuries-old American associations of his London neighborhood, and his visits to London art institutions; he also considers in detail the artist s iconic painting The Houses of Parliament. Concluding chapters consider New York s reception of Homer s post-London paintings from the fishing village of Cullercoats and show how London and this village together formed the foundation for the major paintings of the artist s later career. Tatham s acute examination is enhanced with several illustrations of Homer s most celebrated paintings. ... Read more

Product Description
Donelson F. Hoopes devotes a beautiful volume exclusively to the most popular of all American watercolorists. Published in cooperation with The Brooklyn Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book includes virtually the entire Winslow Homer collection of both museums. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Covers the range of the artist's watercolours
The book opens with a chronology and a bibliography. This is followed by a ten page essay which provides a chronological record of Homer's development and his work. The remainder of the book is taken up with the colour plates, each of which is presented on the right hand page with the facing page offering details and comments on the work. These notes are generally objective and informative.

The large square format of the book combined with taking the image almost to the edges of the page, allows the images to be reproduced to a good size. However, while there is no problem with the clarity of the images they appear a little weak in colour, and lack the vibrancy one would expect from watercolours. While I have not been fortunate to see the works in the original, reproductions I have seen elsewhere look more convincing. I feel too that the choice of a modern serif font for the text is not the best choice; it certainly has not reproduced well and despite being fairly large is not that easy to read across the wide page.

This is a well produced book which offers thirty two full colour plates covering the range of the artist's watercolour output.

Great book for lovers of watercolor
This is an excellect book for anyone who is interested in painting, watercoler and/or Winslow Homer.It has a representative sample of Homers' work with large color plates, along with a discussion of each painting which places it in the context of Homers' life and career at the time the work was created. ... Read more

Product Description
From the beautiful mountains and streams of Canada and the Adirondacks to the sandy beaches of New England, from the picturesque coasts of English villages to the sunny shores of the Bahamas, Winslow Homer captured in his paintings the true magnificence of nature. For more than thirty years between 1873 and 1905, Winslow Homer turned to watercolors during his working vacations, concentrating on capturing the spirit of each place he visited with both spontaneity and intensity.Many of Homer’s most beautiful paintings focus on the interaction between humans and nature—a hunter carrying a deer on his shoulders, a man fishing from a small canoe, a girl lounging and reading in the grass, a young man driving cattle, a fisherman’s family anxiously watching for his return. It is Homer’s understanding of this important relationship between humans and nature that makes his paintings so intriguing.Winslow Homer Watercolors reproduces the best of these paintings. Large color plates allow these reproductions to be appreciated almost as much as the originals. Accompanying the more than 100 color plates is an eloquent introduction and detailed chronology of Homer’s life and artistic development. This stunning volume allows one to experience nature through the eyes of one of America’s greatest painters. It is a vision of nature from a century ago that is still appreciated today. ... Read more

Product Description
This engaging book and the exhibition that it accompanies are the first to look closely at Winslow Homer's avid pursuit of fly-fishing and at the inspiration that the sport provided for his art.

It was fishing that led the eminent painter to three of the locales with which we now associate his name: the Adirondacks in northern New York State, Florida, and Quebec. Each of these distinctive regions elicited unique and strong reactions from the painter, which took form in works that are brilliant studies of light, atmosphere, and the spirit of place. At his favorite fishing spots, Homer worked in the traveler's medium of watercolor, stretching it ever more boldly and unconventionally in order to convey the intensity of his experience of nature; his response to light and atmosphere peculiar to a given region, a specific season, and a particular time of day; and his feeling for the physical and psychological demands of his favorite sport.

Homer's fly-fishing paintings are an immensely varied and little-understood aspect of his art. They serve as a counterpoint to all his other work, especially in the decades of the 1880s and beyond when fly-fishing represented a regular and sustained activity for the artist. Homer's fishing watercolors suggested to him new subject matter, inspiring or at least intensifying, for example, his interest in commercial fishing and in the lives of the men and women who live by the sea. And his fishing expeditions offered recreation, rejuvenation, solace, and camaraderie, which spurred his imagination. The intense visual experience of fly-fishing afforded Homer a close involvement with nature's mysterious details, revealing new worlds of color, form, and dynamism. He also found through fishing new outlets for his work, new patrons, and an audience of Victorian-era sportsmen who could "read" and comprehend his pictures. 110 illustrations, 80 in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

lovely book
wonderful reproductions in a most interesting book. I love the art of Winslow Homer but bought this as a present for a friend who is a "fly-fisher". He was very happy with it! Value for money, very well printed.

Outstanding
I found this book to be outstanding.It is packed with good-quality prints of Homer's works.I love his watercolors the most.I haven't read the book yet, but mostly got it for the beautiful paintings.I am very excited to have this book.It's beautiful.

Winslow Homer: Outdoorsman
The art is amazing. And the book is a fine academic effort at explaining Homer.

However, each chapter is authored by a different writer and not every chapter is equally well-crafted. This individual essay format also thwarts any attempt to present a cohesive story arc.

In the end, I still wonder exactly why the outdoors meant so much to Homer; none of the author's fully or successfully explained that crucual detail.

Also, by limiting the book to fishing, the authors have excluded a major portion of Homer's sporting life and artistic inspiration. His hunting pictures are among his most commanding and they get little or no attention in this book. Sport of all sort seems to have informed Homer's life -- and art -- throughout the year; a book simply about his angling art therefore fails to provide a full picture of the man, his life, and his work.

But the stunning art alone is worth the price of admission. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

not what i hoped for
I received the book in a timely manner, and the dealer is reliable.
My problem was that I thought it was a coffee table book with Homer Winslows paintings. It wasn't, the pictures were small and not as many as I had anticipated. However, I take full blame for not getting what I had in mind, because it was my mistake.

timeless watercolors
I am happy with my purchase of Winslow Homer Watercolors. It includes 223 finely reproduced watercolors done by Homer over the course of his lifetime (most in full color). It is divided up into the various areas he either lived in or traveled to when he did his paintings. The commentary about his work is both interesting and readable.Homer is both a fine draftsman and watercolourist.

Martha's Review
I am very pleased with the book of watercolors. There were numerous pictures of high quality, and covered different phases of his life.

An excellent book
This book provides a great analysis of Winslow Homer's growth as an artist.The author uses each chapter to analyze a different period of Homer's life as he, basically, self-taught himself through observation and experimentation based on where he lived, whether it was in the Bahamas, England, or the Northeast Atlantic coast of the United States. The pictures within the book are very good quality.The author emphasizes analysis of Homer's work over actual biographical information.If you are looking for more of a biographical-type book of Homer read Lloyd Goodrich's book Winslow Homer.Enjoy!

In Awe of Homer
Since seeing a show of Winslow Homer's works a few years ago, I have been in awe of this artist's talent and versatility. So it was natural for me to pick up this beautifuland informative book which focuses on his watercolor career. In addition, the author gives us Homer's earlier background as an oil painter and illustrator. She is certainly well-qualified to write about Homer---she holds the position of Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale University Art Gallery.

The color plates in this book are gorgeous and the text gives good information about Homer, his life, times, and techniques. It was a delight for my eyes!

In 1873, at the age of 37, Homer began serious work with watercolor while in Gloucester, Massachusetts. These paintings were characterized by broad brushstrokes and extensive use of light and color.

The Gloucester watercolors began Homer's lifelong pattern: he would focus for a certain amount of time on a singular theme inspired by a particular location.Some of these themes included rural life, especially childhood, and seascapes/marine scenes. He lived for periods of time in Gloucester; Cullercoats, England; Prout's Neck, Maine; the Bahamas and Cuba;, the Adirondacks; Quebec; Bermuda; and Florida. His need for privacy led him to live in somewhat remote locations, and during these years he was constantly experimenting with new techniques. Prout's Neck was his home base for his last 30 years although he often spent time in other places during that period. It was in Cullercoats (1881-82) that he developed his mature watercolor technique and his love of sea themes which he painted for the rest of his life.

Homer's late works are very thought provoking, often showing heroic subjects or themes; they show nature's beauty and its power and humans' mortality.

Homer lived a very solitary life, never truly realizing how really famous he was. He died at the age of 75, his last five years spent even more withdrawn from society and battling many illnesses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

.Winslow Homer Book Purchase
Quick service, good price, page missing, but book was in good conditioin.Yes, I would do business with this seller again.

The Very Best
If your are looking for the best book about Winslow Homer, look no further. This is it. Not only is it beautifully printed, but also it is very comprehensive. It shows his early days as an apprentice at John Bufford & Sons lithographers and goes on from there to his last days. I'mcollecting his illustrations, which include his stone litho graphics, and his wood-block prints. This book has a checklist of Homer's published graphics sorted by date, which has proven invaluable to me. It allows me to create a "hit list" of images to look for. Once you know what you are looking for, it is much easier to locate original Homer illustrations to buy. While I am not in a position to purchase his watercolors or oil paintings, I can afford to buy his lithographs and wood-block prints. There are other books about Homer's magazine illustrations, but this book is more comprehensive and it also includes his watercolors and oil paintings. My local library considers this book to be a reference book and will not let me check it out. I found an ex-library copy on Amazone.com and purchased it for an unbelievably low price. It has proven to be invaluable to me. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a biography of Winslow Homer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic Book for Young Artists
Fantastic Book for Young Artists

Absolutely wonderful child friendly books about artists. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) devoted much of his life to a study of the ocean and the people whose lives were intertwined with it. This book is the first to focus on the full range of Homer’s coastal subjects, with thirty-six reproductions of his most powerful works. Carl Little’s essay discusses Homer’s development as a painter; quotations from writers such as Homer scholar Philip C. Beam and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins add a further dimension to the thorough and enlightening text. Third printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I could feel his love of the sea.
What a beautiful story of one of my favorite painters.I learned so much about how to look in depth. ... Read more