The Clark

By John Boudreau, Communications Intern

After Winslow Homer, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake, 1889. Etching and aquatint on beige wove paper, sheet 53.7 x 68.9 cm. The Clark, 1970.1

One of the great things about visiting Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History is that everyone who looks at Homer’s paintings will react to them in a different way. They evoke different emotions, stories, and sentiments from every viewer. With Your Favorite Homer, we’ll ask some of the Clark’s employees to share their reactions to their favorite work of art in the exhibit.

Geoffrey Hedden, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake (1889) and Summer Squall (1904)

Although Geoffrey doesn’t typically pick just one favorite piece of work from an artist, he most admires Homer’s depiction of water. He cited the etching Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake and the oil painting Summer Squall as two idyllic examples.

“Water is tough,” Geoffrey said. “Water refracts, it reflects, it bends. It doesn’t have a hard angle, so light and water is really tough to capture. Homer does it pretty well in black and white, but it’s when he starts getting to color that he really shows off his skill.”

For Geoffrey, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake serves as a good example of Homer’s early approach to depicting light and water. “The defining lines on the reflection aren’t minutely detailed,” he said. “You can see Homer has thought and realized he doesn’t need to have every line. Sometimes it’s a hint of something that creates the same feeling. I get reflection off of that. I buy it.”

The sea is a frequent subject in Homer’s later painting, and Geoffrey wondered if it may have mildly obsessed Homer. “It seems to me that somewhere this idea of water, the challenge of representing water, kind of took over some of his work,” he said.

Winslow Homer, Summer Squall, 1904. Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (61.6 x 76.8 cm). The Clark, 1955.8

In Summer Squall, the stormy matte blues and grays of Homer’s palette help set the tone of the painting, but it’s the artist’s work on the foam that Geoffrey finds most interesting. “That foam has got a unique texture to it,” he said. “Capturing it and giving it that little bit of reality is difficult. If you back up far enough from the canvas, the foam is pretty convincing.”

Above all, Geoffrey was quick to credit Homer’s skill as an artist. “A lot of people don’t understand the practice that goes into making art. You train yourself what to look for. You don’t know what it’s going to be, I don’t think, in each instance, but when you look at something and you decide ‘that’s what I want to represent,’ the rest follows from it,” he said. “A painting can be very simple and still evocative.”

Geoffrey Hedden is a shipping and receiving clerk at the Clark. When his wife found a job in the area 15 years ago, he found a position at the Clark shortly thereafter. “I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. When he’s not working, he’s likely to be found in the galleries.

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By John Boudreau, Communications Intern

No one knows quite why Homer decided to leave the United States to travel abroad in 1881. It wasn’t the first time he had left New York City to focus on his painting, but it was the first time he had spent significant time in another country to paint. Perhaps, as Franklin Kelly, deputy director of the National Gallery, has said, Homer set out for England because “he had come to feel that there was too much similarity in the people and the towns of America…he was seeking something new.”[1]

Homer decided to settle in Cullercoats, a fishing village of about 2,000 people on England’s northeast coast. It was among this rugged nautical environment—perhaps not that far removed in spirit from the Maine coast where he would later settle—that Homer felt he could work best.

Winslow Homer Perils of the Sea, 1888. Etching on vellum, plate 41 x 53 cm, sheet 50 x 59.7 cm. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.1482

In a way, his trip to Cullercoats may have marked a turning point in Homer’s career. His paintings of rugged seascapes and the stolid wives of fishermen, like in Perils of the Sea (1881), were themes that he would return to later in his career—take a look at Saco Bay (1896), which is set on Maine’s coast but features women dressed similarly to Cullercoats women. Even his fascination with depicting sea rescues might be partly influenced by his time in the small village, which was home to a volunteer life-saving brigade that helped the Coast Guard rescue sailors from shipwrecks.

Homer wasn’t the first artist to settle in Cullercoats. It had been a well-known location for British artists for a decade by the time he arrived, so there was already a community of other artists who were interested in recording similar subjects. The typically reserved Homer, however, seems to have kept mostly to himself.

Winslow Homer, Saco Bay, 1896. Oil on canvas, 23 13/16 x 37 15/16 in. (60.5 x 96.4 cm). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.5

According to the village’s website, Homer kept a room in the Hudleston Arms hotel (number 17), and a separate studio at 12 Bank Top. Unsurprisingly, Homer’s studio was a very private place. Accessible only through one small door and partially surrounded by a retaining wall, it would have been difficult for passers-by to peer in while he was working. Naturally, the studio and his room at the Hudleston Arms had commanding views of the harbor below.

Both Homer’s old studio and the Hudleston Arms have long since been demolished, but the legacy of Cullercoats as an artists’ haven is still very much intact. A permanent Cullercoats Art Trail was recently established along the coast, allowing visitors to retrace some of Homer’s steps, and locals can point out the settings of some of his paintings. The contributions of Homer and his fellow artists were also recently celebrated in an exhibition at the Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum in the nearby town of Wallsend, proving that although he stayed only eighteen months, Homer affected Cullercoats just as much as Cullercoats affected him.

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By John Boudreau, Communications Intern

Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910), The Bridle Path, White Mountains 1868. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 38 in. (61.3 x 96.5 cm). The Clark, 1955.2

One of the great things about visiting Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History is that everyone who looks at Homer’s paintings will react to them in a different way. They evoke different emotions, stories, and sentiments from every viewer. With Your Favorite Homer, we’ll ask some of the Clark’s employees to share their reactions to their favorite work of art in the exhibit.

Caedy Shultz-Loomis, The Bridle Path, White Mountains (1868)

It was perhaps inevitable that Caedy, who has been riding horses since she was a child, would select this Homer as her favorite. “I was just naturally drawn to this painting,” she said. “I like that he’s depicted the girl and her horse alone, making that the focal point of the painting.” In Caedy’s interpretation, Homer’s compositional choice may have some symbolic weight as well. “Riding can be a very solitary kind of activity, and it can be very much about just you and the horse and the experience that you’re sharing at that moment. She looks very relaxed and free, and that’s one of the things I love about riding. You feel like you’re removed from everything else around you.”

Caedy also appreciated the artist’s attention to detail—in this case, a sprig of vegetation caught in the horse’s bridle. “That’s cool,” she said. “I can think of all the times I’ve been riding in the woods and you duck down under a tree, but the horse just kind of goes along and gets something stuck in his bridle. That shows me that maybe Homer was a rider himself—he gets it.”

Caedy Shultz-Loomis is the Membership and Events Coordinator at the Clark. Originally from Bennington, Vermont, she attended school at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Upon graduating, she knew she was interested in a career in the arts, and in 2004, joined the staff of the Clark.

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