Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1873-1876) by Winslow Homer (American, 1836 - 1910)

Details

• Image Size: 7 1/2 x 12 inches
• Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
• Frame Size: No Frame
• Medium: Print on Paper
• Edition: Open Edition, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
• Provenance: Dayton, OH Auction

Comments

• Homer developed a penchant for forceful realism early in his career. Following an apprenticeship in a Boston lithography shop, he supported himself as a freelance illustrator, creating a wide variety of popular images that subsequently were published as wood engravings in national periodicals like Harper's Weekly. During the early 1860s, his themes ranged from stylish seaside–resort life to the horrors of the battlefield. Following an extended trip to Europe in 1866–1867, Homer adopted a warmer palette, a looser brush technique, and an interest in painting outdoor scenes that owed much to the influence of contemporary French artists such as Courbet, Manet, and Monet.
• Upon his return to the United States, Homer turned his attention to lively scenes of sports and recreation, painting warm and appealing images that perfectly suited the prevalent postwar nostalgia for a simpler, more innocent America. Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), painted during the country's centennial year, has become one of the best–known and most beloved artistic images of life in 19th–century America.
• Close to us, a young man and three boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the canvas and is echoed in the background to our right by the tall sails of another ship in the distance. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and puffy gray and white clouds sweep across the turquoise sky. The sun lights the scene from our right so the boys’ ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. 
• The young man and boys all face our left so they lean against and into the boat as it cants up to our right. The boy nearest the sail to our left reclines across the bow. Next to him to our right, a younger boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest, in a red shirt, sits on the floor of the boat as he maneuvers the sail with a rope. Closer to us and to our right, a younger boy sits with his bare feet pressed together in front of his bent knees on the back edge of the boat, gazing into the distance over his right shoulder as he handles the tiller. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower right corner: “HOMER 1876.”

Condition (Please see grading guide below)

• (I) Overall: Very Good 
• (II) Content: Very Good (Toning) 
• (III) Frame: No Frame. Print Only

Artist Bio

 

• Winslow Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1836, the second of the three children, all sons, of Henrietta Benson and Charles Savage Homer. His artistic education consisted chiefly of his apprenticeship to the Boston commercial lithographer John H. Bufford, and a few lessons in painting from Frédéric Rondel after that. Following his apprenticeship, Homer worked as a free-lance illustrator for such magazines as Harper's Weekly.
• In 1859 he moved to New York City, where began his career as a painter. He visited the front during the Civil War and his first important paintings were of Civil War subjects. In 1867 he spent a year in France. At Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1873 he began to paint in watercolor. In 1875 he submitted his last drawing to Harper's Weekly, ending his career as an illustrator. He traveled widely in the 1870s in New York State, to Virginia, and Massachusetts, and in 1881 he began a two-year stay in England, living in Cullercoats, near Newcastle.
• Returning to America in 1883, he settled at Prout's Neck, Maine, where he would live for the rest of his life. He continued to travel widely, to the Adirondacks, Canada, Bermuda, Florida, and the Caribbean, in all those places painting the watercolors upon which much of his later fame would be based. In 1890 he painted the first of the series of seascapes at Prout's Neck that were the most admired of his late paintings in oil. Homer died in his Prout's Neck studio on September 30, 1910.

 

References

The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Grading Guide

Notes:

• The condition grade is a subjective rating based on the observed objective physical features of the item to the naked eye
• The condition grade does not factor in the perceived beauty or aesthetic impact of the content itself
• Please view all of the item pictures and video to make your own informed condition decision before purchasing

 

Scale:

 

• Excellent: No damage or issues barely perceptible from close viewing distance and bright lighting conditions
• Very Good: Issues visible from close viewing distance and normal lighting conditions
• Good: Issues visible from normal viewing distance and lighting conditions but do NOT significantly detract from the overall look of the work
• Fair: Issues that are immediately apparent from normal viewing distance and lighting conditions AND significantly detract from the overall look of the work
• Poor: Severe condition issues that require repair and some may be beyond repair

 

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