"Certain to be definitive . . . William R. Cross has a special talent for discerning details most of us overlook, and he provides a rich commentary on Homer’s technique, his influences, and even occasional submerged biographical reference, which the painter rarely allowed himself to convey. The biographer’s close attention is worthy of his subject." —Randall Fuller, The Wall Street Journal
" An exemplary biography . . . [Cross] demonstrates that Homer emerged as a storyteller of enormous power and subtlety in a period — the 1860s — when America was casting around for the right story to tell about itself." —Sebastian Smee, The Washington Post
"[William] Cross reveals how Homer’s radiant and dramatic paintings are also shaped by profound questions about humankind’s place in the glory of nature . . . With plentiful color reproductions, Cross’s meticulous, vivid, and revelatory biography transforms our appreciation for this quietly steadfast and subtly trailblazing artist." —Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review)
"This deeply contextualized portrait features more than 400 images, including maps drawn specifically for this volume . . . Gracefully written, empathetic, and authoritative." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Vivid storytelling melds with exuberant analysis in this sweeping look at a canonical American artist’s vibrant life . . . No stone in Homer’s life is left unturned nor brushstroke of deliberately placed light left unexplored under Cross’s meticulous eye . . . Art connoisseurs will want to make room on their shelves for this definitive guide to a great American artist." —Publishers Weekly
"Cross has done an admirable job of bringing to life this most American of painters. Finally, Winslow Homer's brilliant work and fascinating life are united in one volume." —Ken Burns, filmmaker
“This rich biography of Winslow Homer is long overdue. The artist’s enduring importance to the history of American Art brooks no argument. As we discover in this book, the many nuances of his life story also add richness to our understanding of history, place, and innovation in the United States.” —Martha Tedeschi, author (with Kristi Dahm) of Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light
“This intelligent and gracefully-written book is the first substantial new biography of Homer in years, and it’s a multilayered pleasure to read. Cross is a sensitive observer of every aspect of the man, his times, and his career, from abolitionism and Civil War battlefields to the highs and lows of making a living from a capricious marketplace for art. A triumph.” —Adam Hochschild, author of Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes
"Our visual understanding of the 19th century and especially of the Civil War comes to us in no small part from Winslow Homer. In this sweeping and comprehensive consideration of Homer’s life and work, William R. Cross offers fresh insight into how his art was shaped and enabled by the changing politics, society, and technology of the world he sought to depict." —Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
"For anyone whose curiosity was fired by one of the ubiquitous copies of the melancholy marine paintings of the master, William R. Cross's Winslow Homer: American Passage is a revelation. Homer, it emerges, was a narrative as well as an aesthetic genius, bearing witness to the lives of ordinary people and momentous if often overlooked occasions, capturing soldiers at camp in the Civil War, police forcing Frederick Douglass from the stage at a Boston abolitionist meeting, a shipwreck survivor eyed by sharks at sea. Full of insight, sensitively written, this superb biography tells the story of an artist who had the moral heart of an historian." —Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
02/28/2022
Vivid storytelling melds with exuberant analysis in this sweeping look at a canonical American artist’s vibrant life. Art curator Cross (Homer at the Beach) delves into the world of Winslow Homer (1836–1910), a painter whose “search for balance, order, and beauty amid the conflicts he confronted,” Cross argues, imbued him with a canny ability to capture both the experiences of “ordinary people” and “powerful forces of nature.” Drawing from letters, diaries of friends, and published interviews, Cross follows Homer’s artistic quest—from his early commercial pictorial wood print drawings in the mid-1850s to the solemn portraits he published in Harper’s Weekly during the Civil War, to the vivid rendering of natural landscapes that became synonymous with his name. Cross draws insightful connections between Homer’s life events and his works—citing, in one example, his “mother’s declining health” as being responsible for the “mortal themes” present in such famous works as his “American masterpiece,” The Life Line (1884). No stone in Homer’s life is left unturned nor brushstroke of deliberately placed light left unexplored under Cross’s meticulous eye. While occasionally dense, the rich descriptions and reproductions of Homer’s art will beckon readers along. Art connoisseurs will want to make room on their shelves for this definitive guide to a great American artist. (Apr.)
★ 2022-04-12
A rich biography of the towering artist who captured the realities of 19th-century America.
Drawing on abundant scholarship and archival sources, Cross chronicles in vibrant detail the career, travels, friendships, and prolific output of Winslow Homer (1836-1910). With no diaries and few letters available to document much of his subject’s life, Cross speculates about what the artist “may have” or “appears to have” done or felt. But the author is so deeply cognizant of 19th-century art, history, and material culture that his inferences are thoroughly persuasive. Growing up in Boston, Homer was encouraged by his mother, an artist herself. As a young man, Homer worked for a prominent Boston lithographer, soon contributing wood engravings to illustrated magazines, notably Harper’s Weekly, which became his principal client. During the Civil War, he made several stays at the front, sketching scenes of camp life for Harper’s. The successful illustrator, though, aspired to be recognized as a painter. Moving from Boston to New York in 1859, Homer began to submit his work to group exhibitions. In 1866, he sailed for Europe, where he visited museums and galleries—Cross recounts the works he would have seen—and although no drawings survive from that trip, he brought back many pastoral scenes that he painted in the French countryside. By the time he returned 10 months later, Cross notes, “he returned to America penniless,” intent on marketing his work to wealthy buyers. The oils and watercolors that Homer produced for the next decades of his life, as he grew increasingly famous, reflect the landscapes in which he thrived: the White Mountains, Jersey shore, Caribbean, Adirondacks, and Prouts Neck, Maine, where his family had bought property. His subjects often were ordinary men and women—including those newly freed from slavery—engaged in work or pleasure. This deeply contextualized portrait features more than 400 images, including maps drawn specifically for this volume.
Gracefully written, empathetic, and authoritative.
