Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer was born on February 24th, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts. As he developed into one of the most prominent painters of 19th-century America, his New England upbringing colored his works in both genre and setting.
Known for both his portraiture and landscapes, Homer began as an illustrator and woodcut artist.
By 1859, he opened up a studio in New York City. Here he began to delve into painting, eventually dabbling in landscape by the late 1860s.
Homer took a liking to the landscape of Massachusetts, not only as a local, but a vacationer too: he would often visit his parents while they were summering in Marshfield. While there, he produced a number of notable works, “The Sand Dune” among them.
Here, he depicts three women enjoying a day on the beach, though far from the water. Two gather at the base of a great ridge, its steep slope amplified by Homer’s thin, downward brushstrokes. These are mimicked in the spindly grasses that pepper the landscape, lending a somewhat rigid dynamism to the composition.
One woman, however, stands alone atop the dune. Her footsteps indicate she went up and around the steep slope, her long shadow cast down along the knoll’s length. Both it and the indents left by her feet contain shades of blue reflecting that of the sky.
Why has she left her companions? Could it be the sea calls to her on the opposite side? Or - seeing as we have no view over the dune - does she seek dry land?
- Anthony deFeo