The Paintings and Watercolors of Winslow Homer

Explore Winslow Homer’s paintings and watercolors and learn practical setup for sketching and watercolor practice, from sketchbooks and brushes to paints and paper, guided by an American master.

The lecture traces how Winslow Homer's mentors, his mother Henrietta Benson Homer and his father, shaped watercolor technique and his career as a nineteenth century American landscape painter and printmaker.

Explore Winslow Homer’s early Civil War works, from front-line battlefield scenes to intimate soldier portraits, and track his shift from illustration to watercolor and impressionistic styles.

Explore how Winslow Homer shapes breaking waves, sea spray, and moonlit coast across works like undertow and crab fish, using three major areas—sky, sea, and beach—and seashore watercolor studies.

Master watercolor techniques for Winslow Homer’s canoe in the rapids, using a perpendicular brush grip, landscape composition with a horizon line, and color mixing with cobalt blue and burnt umber.

Explore Winslow Homer's tropical watercolors and paintings from Key West, the Gulf Stream, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba, and Florida, capturing the tropical climate with warm seas, boats, and light.

Explore Winslow Homer's country life scenes, from a woman gathering eggs to roosters and wheat, rendered with luminous illumination and narrative skill that turn simple moments into poems.

Explore Winslow Homer's pastoral farm scenes, from shepherds and cattle to watercolor atmospheres, highlighting negative space between foliage and grass, and the detailed rendering of figures, ground, and skies.

Explore Winslow Homer's seascapes and shore scenes, from breaking waves and reflections on moist sand to neo-classical figures, sailboats, and dramatic nocturne that showcase tonal mastery.

Explore Winslow Homer's Adirondack mountain landscapes, hiking scenes, and precise terrain—from rock formations to river reflections and canoes—in a collection that documents a vanishing lifestyle.

Explore Winslow Homer's 1866 croquet scene, depicting a bygone era with ladies in blue dresses and a gentleman, and the detailed rendering of figures, balls, hoops, and background.