Collection: Winslow Homer

American painter Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was born in Boston but grew up in what was then rural Cambridge. He began his artistic career as an illustrator, with his sketches appearing in publications like Harper's Weekly. These often featured sketches made at the front lines of the Civil War, capturing the harshness of war and the plight of soldiers. His love, however, was for idyllic scenes of expansive countryside and rural life, and he painted these scenes regularly throughout the 1870s. In the early 1880s, he visited England and became enamored of the harsh life of fishermen and their families. His subject shifted to maritime scenes, and these remained his focus until his death in 1910 in the small seaside town of Prout's Neck, Maine.