Winslow Homer

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameWinslow•Homer
Used nameWinslow•Homer
Born24 February 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts (USA)
Died29 September 1910 in Prout's Neck, Scarborough, Maine (USA)
NOC United States

Biography

American Winslow Homer began as an illustrator for books and magazines for over 20 years, and later did oil paintings, especially seascapes. He is regarded by many as the greatest American painter of the 19th century. He served an apprenticeship in his hometown of Boston under John Henry Bufford (1810-70), a lithographer. During the Civil War, Homer worked as a correspondent for “Harper’s Weekly”, illustrating battle scenes and everyday life in Union Army camps. After the war he painted many scenes of women and young children.

After exhibiting his works at the National Academy of Design, he traveled to Paris in 1867, studying for one year, where he observed the painting techniques of his peers. While there he did landscape painting and continued to work for “Harper’s Weekly”. On his return Homer painted mostly scenes of rural and family life. He began working in watercolors in 1873, settling in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1873 where he revived his love of the sea. In 1881-82 Homer spent two years painting in Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear, England before returning to the United States and living on an island off the coast of Maine. There he emphasized sea scenes in watercolors. Homer is considered the premier American watercolorist, of whom it was said, “Homer used his singular vision and manner of painting to create a body of work that has not been matched.” Later he focused on oil paintings depicting the struggle of man with the violence of the sea.

His painting Casting was exhibited hors concours 22 years after his death at the 1932 Art Competition in Los Angeles. Homer painted several watercolors with similar motifs. Casting, created in 1897, was on loan to the Addison Gallery in Andover, Massachusetts in 1932, where it remains today. The work was painted with watercolor and graphite pencil on wove paper and measured 35.4 x 53 cm.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1932 Summer Olympics Art Competitions USA Winslow Homer
Painting, Drawings And Water Colors, Open (Olympic) HC

Special Notes