Winslow Homer's New England Boxed Notecards

Born in Boston into a long line of New Englanders, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) became a freelance illustrator at age twenty-one, drawing for Harper’s Weekly and other pictorial news magazines. During the Civil War he served as a Harper’s war correspondent, then in 1866 he traveled to Europe, spending nearly a year painting in Paris. On his return to America he began working in watercolor and quickly mastered the medium.

After another extended trip to Europe in 1882–1883, Homer moved to the coast of Maine, where he lived for the rest of his life. In his studio at Prouts Neck, near Portland, he specialized in depicting sportsmen in the rugged outdoors—hunting, fishing, and canoeing the Northeastern wilds—and created the culminating paintings of his career. Homer’s late seascapes, like Weatherbeaten (1894), are alternately brooding and ecstatic, situating mankind within the natural drama of assault and resistance, struggle and survival.

The largest art museum in Maine, Portland Museum of Art holds an outstanding collection of Homer works. In 2006 the museum acquired Homer’s studio in Prouts Neck, which will be used to celebrate the artist’s life and educate audiences about the artistic heritage of Winslow Homer and Maine.