Winslow Homer. Вінслоу Хомер
Вінслоу Хомер, один з найбільших американських художників, був самоучкою. Його першою значною картиною була “Полонені з фронту”, закінчена в 1866 році, яка зробила його одним з найвідоміших художників Америки. Його післявоєнні картини відбивають сільське життя Америки: види ферм, діти, гарненькі дівчата, літні курорти. “Ранковий дзенькіт”, “Сільська школа”, “Ферма в Глостері” – це картини на звичайні теми, що зображують звичайних людей, що виконують свою щоденну роботу.
В очах сучасного письменника Генрі Джеймса його
Winslow Homer, one of the greatest American painters, was a self-taught artist. His first important painting “Prisoners from the Front” was finished in 1866 and made him one of the most well-known painters in America. His post-war paintings dealt with American country life: farm scenes, children, pretty girls, summer resorts. “The Morning Bell”, “The Country School”, “Glouster Farm” are down-to-earth paintings showing ordinary people doing their everyday work. In the eyes of contemporary writer, Henry James, his paintings seemed hopelessly unfinished and ugly. In the 1860s his subject matter and his style underwent a change. He concentrated on the nature and mankind: the mountains, the forest and particularly the sea. He painted woodsmen, fishermen, and sailors. His central theme was man’s relationship with nature. Homer completely ignored the life of the privileged classes of a society, and devoted his art to common people.
During the 1870s Homer’s art gained steadily in strength and skill. His earlier themes continued, but with changes in viewpoint and emphasis. His works of that period were much preoccupied with women. New kinds of subjects appeared in these years and one of them was Negro life. When he was 45, in 1881, Homer made the second visit abroad that had a deeper effect than his stay in France fifteen years before. This time he went to England and spent two seasons near the fishing port on the North Sea. Here he first began to paint the sea, and the men and women who earned their living from it. Concentrating almost entirely on water-colour and drawing, he made pictures of the fisherfolk, particularly the women. This part of the East Coast was noted for its storms and his works showed a new awareness of the power and danger of the sea. Their dramatic force and realism soon won them a permanent place among pictorial descriptions of the sea. In his paintings Homer gives us the mighty rhythm of the tides, and the beauty of dawn and sunset over the moving waters. His marines are unique; they show the danger and the beauty of the sea.
Vocabulary:
Self-taught artist [self’to:t ‘a:tist] – художник-самоучка ugly [‘Agh] – потворний relationship [n’leijanfip] – взаємовідносини життя post-war [‘paustwo:] – післявоєнний country-life [‘kAntri laif] – сільське marine [ma’n:n] – морський
Questions:
What can you say about Winslow Homer as an artist? What was his central theme? Did he like to paint women? Where did he stay in England? What did his marines show to us?
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