Homer

The first few years at Front's Neck were pro-
lific. "The Life Line" was the beginning of a
notable series of paintings of marine subjects
with figures. "The Fog Warning," originally
called "Halibut Fishing/' now in the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, represents a fisherman re-
turning to his schooner in his dory. The sea is
rough and dark under the late afternoon light;
near the horizon is a rising fog bank. The sails
of the schooner are visible far away at the right;
the man rests on his oars momentarily as he turns
his head in order to make out whereaway his ves-
sel lies. "Banks Fishermen" shows two men in
a dory hauling in a net full of squirming herring.
It was exhibited at the autumn Academy of 1885
and at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chi-
cago in 1893, under the prosaic title of "Her-
ring Fishing." The picture called "Lost on the
Grand Banks," dated 1886, has some similarity
to "The Fog Warning," but its suggestions of
danger and possible death are even more obvi-
ous. Two fishermen are seen in a dory; a fog has
enveloped them; they are anxiously peering into
the swirling vapors, trying to ascertain the di-
rection of their schooner. The canvas was first
shown at the St. Botolph Club, Boston, in 1886.
"Undertow" pictures an incident which had been
witnessed by the painter at Atlantic City, the
rescue of two half-drowned women bathers by a
couple of men. As a background for the group
of four figures, which forms a chain, a huge
bluish-green wave impends. "Eight Bells" is
one of Homer's most stirring deep-sea classics.
The action depicted is an ordinary part of the
daily routine on ship-board, the taking of the
noon observation to determine the position of the
vessel. The chief figure, probably that of the
master, occupies the center of the composition,
standing near the bulwarks with his back turned
to the observer, while he holds up the sextant and
gazes into the telescope. His assistant, seen in
profile, bends intently over the chronometer.
Nothing of the ship is visible except the upper
part of the bulwarks and a stanchion just behind
the mate's back. The ocean is seething in a
welter of creamy foam, the aftermath of a gale,
but the heavy clouds are breaking away here and
there. The picture was bought by Thomas B.
Clarke. In the sale of his collection in 1899 it
brought $4,700. It has been engraved on wood
by Henry Wolf.

In 1887 the artist finished a large figure piece
which he considered the most important picture
he had painted up to that time. It was called
"Hark! the Lark/' and was a replica on an en-
larged scale of a watercolor of 1883 painted from
studies made in Tynemouth* The oil painting

Homer
was acquired by the Layton Art Gallery, Mil-
waukee, Wis. It was among the pictures exhib-
ited at the loan exhibition of Homer's works at
the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1908.
The watercolor, entitled "A Voice from the
Cliff," represents a group of three pretty English
fishergirls on the beach, with their sturdy forms
outlined against the gray cliffs behind them. A
striking feature of the arrangement is the repe-
tition of lines in the arms of the girls as they
hold their baskets. This gives a swinging move-
ment which is pleasing in its rhythm.
In the late eighties Homer made a series of
six etchings after his own paintings, choosing
for the purpose "Eight Bells," "The Life Line,"
"Undertow," "Perils of the Sea," "Mending the
Nets," and "Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake." The
important marine pieces of 1890 were "Coast in
Winter" and "Sunlight on the Coast." "The
West Wind," which followed in 1891, is a simple
design of few and telling lines in which the
strong and steady sweep of the off-shore wind
is suggested with grandeur of style. To the same
period belong "The Signal of Distress" and "A
Summer Night" The former is among Homer's
most interesting illustrative pictures of life at
sea. The crew of a liner is getting ready to lower
away the boats in an attempt to go to the aid of a
full-rigged ship in distress. Vivid realism is here
combined with a dramatic sense of danger and
suspense. "A Summer Night" has for its motive
a scene that the painter saw at Prout's Neck: the
ocean at night, with the shining field of silvery
moonlight on the tossing waves, and in the fore-
ground, at the top of the cliff, the dark forms of
a group of people watching the surf and two girls
waltzing. The blue, purple, slate, and silver-
gray tones form a rich cool harmony in the minor
key, and the rhythmical movement of the design
is in Homer's noblest vein. This masterwork
belongs to the Luxembourg Museum, Paris.
Fifteen of Homer's pictures were exhibited at
the Chicago exposition of 1893, when a gold
medal was awarded to him. He was now, at the
age of fifty-seven, in the maturity of his powers;
from this time to the end of his life he received
every token of appreciation, every evidence of
popular favor, and all the honors that can be be-
stowed upon a successful painter. The story of
his closing years is but a recital of a remarkable
succession of triumphs. The great picture of
1893 was the "Fox Hunt," a large canvas, chiefly
remarkable for its original and novel composi-
tion. Frank Fowler shrewdly observed that it
exemplified the fine sense of quantities in space
that characterized so much of Homer's best
work. The picture was bought by the PennsyU