Homer

Good afternoon! I'm going to tell you a little about a very great American artist today. We're going to start off a little different today. I would like you all to close your eyes and just listen to my story. This is what the artist I am going to tell you about would wish to say to you if he were in our classroom today (or your were in his studio today).


Come in! Come in! Don't be shy. I'm not as gruff as people say I am. It's just that sometimes I like to be alone so I can paint in peace. And I'm never lonely here in my studio on the coast of Maine. Just look out that window and you'll understand. There's always something wonderful to see out there - the sun over the ocean, some fisherman hard at work. Or look out the other window - do you see those boys lying in the meadow? And beyond that, some young ladies are enjoying a game of craquet on the lawn in front of my borthers house. You know, some people say an artist has to live in Paris to be successful, but I've tried it and I don't agree. My roots are here, in America. I have come to think that nature is the most insipiring subject of all for an artist, and I can get closer to nature right here than almost anywhere elese in the world. But wait a moment -please don't move. The light is marvelous on your face! May I do a quick sketch of you? I enjoy drawing young people like you . Young people are the subject of  of some of my best-known paintings and drawings. And after that I'll tell you how I got to be the most famous artist in America. Yes, that's who I am. I'm Winslow homer.

Open your eyes now! Here is a picture of Yankee Winslow Homer! (#1 Weekend with Homer p.6)

He was a very famous and well loved American artist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Has anyone ever been there? he was born on Februaru 24, 1836. How many years ago was that? He was born to a family whose roots went back on both his mother's and fathers sides for many generations to New England (show on map of USA where "New England") Homer was an America Yankee to the bone. He was a very private man and did not like to be interviewed by the news people. This his posterity with few written accounts of his personal feelings although there are some notes on conversations with him jotted down by his friends. And his paints speak for his emotions; in the Yankee, the pictures are quite on the surface but burn with interior passion. This wonderful man who in his later years painted such marvelous pictures of the ocean stemmed from a family that had always been connected with the sea- though his forebearers were less often sailors than merchants who stayed ashore and bought and sold what the sea captains brought home from the distant ports. Homer's father was an importer of hardward, and both his grandfathers had engaged in similar trades. Winslow was born at 25 Friend street, in a comfortably middle-class section of Boston. Whe he was six years old his family, Mother Father, and two brothers moved to Cambridge, a nearby suburb. Cambridge is like a city in itself now but at that time it was very rural with woods and fields for playing in and a river for fishing and boating.

What good times he had there Charlie and Arthur were his brothers and best friends.

He was always drawing with a pencil. His mother encouraged and helped him. (She was a watercolor painter) He drew pictures of everything and everyone - his brothers, friends, trees, farmhouses, dogs and cows. He was always drawing

He answered an ad his dad saw in the newspaper. He signed a contract and worked for Mr. Bufford drawing covers of sheet music for two years - for free!

He got a job as an illustrator. One of his most exciting assignments was doing sketches of the innauguration of President Lincoln. Later he followed soliders around durning the Civil War sketching important details.

I realized during this time that I enjoyed doing sketches but really wanted to paint with oils. So reaturend and took four oil painting lessons from a frend painters and blossomed as a painter. All of America was impressed with the talent.

Brother Charlie bought some of his oil paintings secretly so Winslow would continue to paint.

A Few year later Winslow finished a Civ