From The Fog Warning to The Blue Boat, Winslow Homer’s watercolor paintings are some of the most iconic and instantly recognizable pieces of American art. But because of the fragile, light-sensitive nature of the medium, watercolors can be displayed for only a few months at a time and require years-long “rest” periods to properly preserve them.
Now for the first time in decades, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is displaying a collection of almost 50 watercolors by Winslow Homer in the new exhibition, “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor.” It’s the first time in nearly half a century that the collection is on view together, says the exhibition’s cocurator, Christina Michelon, the Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints & Drawings at the MFA, which houses the world’s largest collection of Homer’s watercolors.
The Dinner Horn, about 1870, Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), Oil on panel, Gift of Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird (Julia Appleton Bird), Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“This is really a really special opportunity for visitors to see these works that, 90 percent of the time, we have to keep away from light and safely in storage,” Michelon says. “That’s the reason why they still look as incredible as they do. Some of them are still as fresh as the day Homer finished them because they’ve been cared for by the MFA for a century in some cases.”
The exhibition, running from November 2 to January 19, will also feature a selection of Homer’s related oils, drawings, and prints, ranging from his childhood drawings to his final, unfinished canvas. It will explore the major chapters in Homer’s career and show visitors the geographic, ecological, artistic, social, and economic environments that shaped his work.
Inspiration from the sea
One of those environments was the North Shore, where Homer drew inspiration from the sea and maritime life.
“We’re really excited about one gallery in particular, called Atlantic Shores, where we’re really thinking about the way he’s painting the shore and the sea in his marine paintings,” Michelon says.
It’s a subject that Homer would be continually drawn to throughout his career, capturing scenes from Maine, Cape Ann, Florida, the Bahamas, and the coastal English town of Cullercoats.
Among the pieces is Homer’s first exhibited seascape, Rocky Coast and Gulls, which is a view of Manchester-by-the-Sea from 1869. There’s also work from his formative time in Gloucester, which, when viewed alongside later works of similar composition from his later years in Maine, illustrate the way Homer’s Cape Ann visits influenced some of his most famous pieces. Visitors to the MFA exhibition will get a chance to see that evolution.
Boys in a Pasture, 1874, Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), Oil on canvas, The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Homer, who was born in Boston, came to Gloucester for the first time during the summer of 1873, and it was there where he began to truly focus on watercolors. Prior to those years, Homer was painting “a lot of pastoral views” but began “to gradually shift to the sea,” Michelon says, perhaps drawn by its “unpredictability” and the way it’s both “known and unknown.”
Homer returned to Cape Ann in 1880, lodging with the lighthouse keeper on Ten Pound Island in Gloucester Harbor.
However, Homer isn’t simply depicting the sea’s beauty in his works.
“He’s thinking a lot about people that work with the sea. Certainly when he’s in Gloucester in 1873 and 1880, it’s a lot of harbor views, a lot of the comings and goings of fishermen,” Michelon says. “I think he’s just very attuned to wanting to depict the lives and environments of people that are so closely tied to the sea.”
Woodsman and Fallen Tree, 1891, Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), Watercolor over graphite pencil on paper, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The sea also gave Homer the perfect subject through which to explore and master watercolor, depicting the movement, turning, and crashing of the waves, and the always-changing nature of the sea and sky.
For instance, one of Michelon’s favorite watercolors from Homer’s time in Gloucester in 1880 is Two Boys Rowing, which depicts two boys sort of rowing on a very choppy sea with a bigger sailboat in the distance.
“I think it’s this moment when he’s really starting to exploit the capabilities of watercolor. He’s using this medium to evoke a moving atmosphere,” she says. “It’s these churning waves and this somewhat ominous sky.”
Paintings like these are why the writer Henry James described Homer as an artist “who sees everything at once with its envelope of light and air.” That phrase gives the MFA’s new exhibition its name and is part of what Michelon hopes viewers will take away from their visit.
“We wanted to celebrate Homer’s incredible skill, the way that this work still resonates with artists today,” she says. “He’s just this monumental figure in the history of American art, but especially in watercolor.”