Considered by most art historians to be one of the more important American artists, Winslow Homer was essentially self-taught and that fact informs his prolific span of works as much from the progressive technical maturity of his paintings and drawings as from the intuitive approach to his subjects that, at time, 'over-schooling' can flatten.
Elizabeth Johns has written an engrossing study of how Homer's life and psychological development are evident in the various stages of his work. Never cloying or intrusive in demeanor, Johns intertwines facts gleaned from correspondence and from criticism and Homer's responses to same to paint her own portrait of a man at odds with the world in some ways and in other ways as an integral observer of such phenomena as his passion for the sea.
Johns' writing is so facile that the book could comfortably exist without illustration, but add to the power of her writing the fine reproductions of both black and white and richly colored plates of Homer's paintings and this becomes a book that will satisfy even those who have questioned Homer's importance in American art history. A fine read. Grady Harp, November 05
