Winslow Homer: From Poetry to Fiction, The Engraved Works

This exhibition is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Winslow Homer wood engravings ever to tour American museums, including many never before exhibited or published rare period photographs that relate to Homer’s engravings from the early 1860s to the late 1870s.

Three exceptional Homer lithographs from the Bufford print shop in Boston, MA, c.1856-1857, are also included, as well as two handwritten documents related to the Civil War. Several of the engraved works also include comparisons with alternative works by Homer and other artists of his time and before. The exhibition is organized into 13 sub-themed areas based on Homer’s subjects that include: The Bufford Workshop Apprentice Years, Early Portraits, Leisure Time Activity, Rural America, The War Years, Holidays, The Sporting Life, Courtship and Romance, Seaside Views, America’s Youth, The Changing Role of Women, Urbanization and Society, and Poetry and Literature.

With a sensitive and observant eye, Homer observed American society and its environments through many mediums, and with this exhibit we focus on his skillfully executed monochromatic engravings created in the years before the Civil War and the following decade, both mourning a country in turmoil and heralding its rebirth.

This exhibition was organized by Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions