Life-Size Black Bass

One of the most universally acclaimed realist painters America has produced, Homer is particularly known for his scenes of outdoor life. The Boston-born artist began his career as an illustrator for Harper's (after an apprenticeship in lithography), reporting pictorially from the Civil War battlefront. The war and its aftermath became a source of imagery for him as he began to concentrate on oil painting, making his first visit to Europe in late 1866, and achieving rapid critical success. While summering in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1873, Homer first began to paint seriously in watercolor; it would eventually become his primary medium, allowing him to explore nuances of light, color, and composition in a fluid and spontaneous manner. Homer's outdoor genre scenes encompassed a variety of subjects, including children and young adults (often in summertime leisure pursuits), wilderness guides, and rural blacks in the post-Civil War era. In 1881, he spent almost two years in the fishi

Boston, MA, USA