Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting

Dates:

Location:

Halford Gallery, Focus Gallery, Center Gallery, John A. and Helen P. Becker Gallery, Bernard and Barbro Osher Gallery
This exhibition explores the question of Homer’s relationship with the medium of photography and its impact on his artistic practice.

Selected Works

"Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln," March 4, 1861, salt print, attributed to Alexander Gardner (1821–1882). Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
"The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States at the Capitol," wood engraving, published in Harper’s Weekly, March 16, 1861, by Winslow Homer. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
"Winslow Homer at Marshfield," ca. 1869, albumen silver print by an unknown photographer. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
"The Nooning," ca. 1872, oil on canvas, by Winslow Homer. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. CT.

About

This exhibition explores the question of Homer’s relationship with the medium of photography and its impact on his artistic practice. As one attuned to appearances and how to represent them, Homer understood that photography, as a new technology of sight, had much to reveal. This exhibition thus adds an important new dimension to our appreciation of this pioneering American painter, demonstrating his recognition that photography did not undermine, but instead complemented his larger artistic interests.

Major support for this exhibition and catalogue is provided by The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Elizabeth B. G. Hamlin Fund, the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund, the Becker Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Peter J. Grua ’76 and Mary G. O’Connell ’76, the Devonwood Foundation, Robert and Elisabeth Freson, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Additional support has been provided by the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust, Charles and Elizabeth Lyman, Judy Glickman Lauder, Steven P. Marrow ’83, P’21 and Dianne A. Pappas P’21, Lee Sprague, John A. Gibbons, Jr. ’64 and Lile R. Gibbons P’88, ’91, ’93 and ’96, the Karl R. Philbrick Art Museum Fund, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Betsy Evans Hunt, the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Patricia Brown, and an anonymous donor.

Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition sponsor

Read the press release

Press

Enjoy these articles about the exhibition

Maine Sunday Telegram, June 24, 2018
Boston Globe, June 28, 2018
Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2018
Travel and Leisure, July 11, 2018
Apollo, June 14, 2018
National Review, August 18, 2018