Winslow HomerCritiques

This is a really enjoyable book. Winslow Homer tells his life story to some unknown but friendly visitor. Most of the many illustrations are his paintings, but a few are black and white photographs of him.

Entirely in color, multiple images on every page. Large, with double column text. I was interested to know more of Homer's "Eight Bells", which I had recently viewed. It is indeed a fine painting; but the book provided no additional information about the scene depicted. What instrument, I would like to know, is the man on the right using?

Winslow Homer and the Camera offers wonderful insight into both Homer's work and the influence of photography on artists of the period.

While a familiarity with Homer's work would certainly have made the book even more interesting for me the discussions along with the accompanying pictures made everything quite understandable. Which is important since art and art history is not one of my strongest areas. So if you have an interest but don't have much in the way of credentials in this area this book will still be accessible and informative. I also think that for those well-versed in the topic the essays will speak to you even more since a certain foundation will allow you to grasp and make connections that likely elude me.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone with a casual interest in art through to an artist or art historian with a solid background. There is plenty to engage any reader along that spectrum.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

Decent review of Homer's art and where it stood within his life and the world around him. I really enjoyed discovering the differences in the artist's use of oils and watercolors, along with the constant themes of death and nature. Excellent beginning on my study of Homer.