Winslow Homer: American Storyteller, Part II

Widely regarded as one of the foremost and influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Winslow Homer began his career as a free-lance commercial illustrator designing wood engravings for popular illustrated weekly publications such as Harper’s Weekly, Appleton’s Journal of Literature, Science, and Art, and Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. Thanks to advancements in printing technology, these journals—which emphasized black-and-white illustrations over text—could be published quickly and inexpensively for wide-spread distribution to the masses.

Homer’s subjects for his wood engravings varied greatly, ranging from depictions of political figures to Civil War subjects drawn while serving as a front-line war correspondent for Harper’s Weekly. During the late 1860s and 1870s, Homer’s prints increasingly offered glimpses into American life. The leisurely exploits of fashionably dressed young women in outdoor settings contrasted more poignant scenes from the lives of seagoers and their families in fishing villages along the coast of New England. Depictions of the little red schoolhouse or country children playing games such as blindman’s bluff and snap-the-whip appealed to readers nostalgic for a simpler, rural life that seem to be slipping away in the face of increased urbanization. No matter their subject, Winslow Homer’s wood engravings reveal an artist who was an exceptional draughtsman with a keen attention to detail and a gift for storytelling.

The works in this exhibition are lent to the Speed courtesy of Ellen Weinstein of Atlanta, Georgia. They are from the collection of her late parents Ruth and Joseph Davis, formerly of Louisville, who built an impressive collection of Homer wood engravings, as well as works by Kentucky artists.