American Ideals of Dignity and Stoicism in Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, one of the greatest american outdoor painters of all time, showed his fascination with the natural power of the sea and the heroic people who live by and on it through much of his artwork. Homer spent most of his life living along the coast and enjoying its lifestyle while observing and painting local fishermen and sailors. Homer provided a contrast to many other famous impressionists during his life such as Degas, Monet and Renoir.  Through his more realist style of painting, Homer showed a forgotten people during his time, and a people he deemed to be noble in their strenuous lifestyle. Homer was not interested in showing modernization and the huge social transitions that were taking place in urban lifestyles during the late 19th century. Homer tries through his paintings to show just the opposite, he shows fishermen and sailors who are noble in their work and heroic in their overcoming of the ocean he depicts as powerful, dangerous, and beautiful. His goal was to show the dignity and heroic effort of the arduous and demanding lifestyle of fishermen. Through his art, Homer shows this focus on the natural world, and the dignity in doing hard work that most others during his time overlooked. His goal of representing these overlooked classes of people is seen clearly through Gulf Stream, and many of his other artworks.

Gulf Stream, Winslow Homer 1899, Medium:Oil on canvas, 06.1234

Homer’s Gulf Stream was one of his most famous works which culminated much of the experience he gained by painting ocean scenes throughout his lifetime. Homer’s Gulf Stream brings to fruition his idea of the ocean as provisional, yet dangerous and untamable.  This painting differs from most of his oil paintings in its subject as the southern gulf ocean off of the coast in the Bahamas, however it remains the same in its portrayal of under represented classes viewed as stoic and dignified.

Inside the Bar, Winslow Homer,1883, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, 54.183

In Homer's Inside the Bar, he represents life on the coast of Tynemouth on the north sea of England. Homer shows his sensitivity towards the lives of women and the strenuous and courageous lives they live in Tynemouth hauling and cleaning fish, repairing nets, and standing at the water's edge patiently awaiting the return of their husbands. The foamy waters and dark ominous sky shown in this watercolor suggest the turmoil and toughness these women of Tynemouth must face, and the stoic attitudes they embody while doing so.  

Fisher Folk in a Dory, Winslow Homer, 1881. Watercolor over graphite on heavy white wove paper. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, 1939.24

Fisher Folk in a Dory is one of Homer's more light and tranquil portrayals of the ocean.  This painting uses lots of whites and some hints of blue peaking through the clouds to represent a much less ominous and dangerous feeling ocean.  However the subjects of the painting are the same common theme he portrays throughout his life. He shows three fishermen and one woman patiently plying their trade while drifting across the ocean in their dory.  These people doing what most during the time period considered proletariat work, are represented as noble people worthy of portrayal in his art.

The Fisher Girl, Winslow Homer,1894. Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum, 1933.7.

In this work Homer once again seeks to bring light to under privileged classes and their burdensome and formidable work.  The under privileged class in this area however is not just a fishing society, it is the rugged lifestyle of a female in a fishing community during the 1890’s. The Fisher Girl provides strong contrast to other famous impressionist artists of the time who were showing aristocratic women with frivolous hats and dresses full of color as the way women should act and dress within the rise of modernization.  Paintings such as Renoir’s depiction of women in his Luncheon of the Boating Party, push for the opposite version of dignified humanity that Homer strives to represent in The Fisher Girl.

The Fog Warning, Winslow Homer, 1885,  Oil on canvas, 94.72

This painting by Homer shows his common theme of the dangers of venturing out to sea to earn a living, and how physically demanding this task can be.  The Fog Warning makes the viewer understand that even after the catch has been won, getting back to shore can be another problem all together.  In The Fog Warning, dark mist looms on the horizon threatening to make the fishermen pictured loose his way back to shore, or worse, wreck his boat on the rocky shoreline when he attempts to land.

Fishing Boats Key West, Winslow Homer, 1903, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, 10.228.1

Fishing Boats, Key West, another one of Homer’s most famous watercolors, is a result of his time spent painting in Nassau Bahamas. Similarly to his Gulf Stream, this painting represents the warm vibrant colored waters of the gulf, and shows his life theme of painting beauty found in the natural world.  In connection to Gulf Stream this seascape also shows Homer’s idea that the ocean is wild, untamable, and dangerous.  Even though Fishing Boats, Key West is in the same location as Gulf Stream, it portrays a relaxing calming ocean while Gulf Stream depicts a wild ravaging hurricane.