Homer, Winslow

Extract

Homer, Winslow (24 February 1836–29 September 1910), artist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson. Both parents came from comfortable, middle-class families with deep New England roots. The family moved from Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Homer was six years old. Consequently, he passed most of his childhood and all of his youth in a country village as Cambridge then was. Homer’s father has been described (on no known documentary basis) as being a well-to-do importer of hardware; however, he seems never to have sustained any productive employment or profession after his return in 1851 from an unsuccessful venture in California. It is likely that Homer’s family was at least partially dependent upon his financially successful uncles until his elder brother, Charles Savage Homer, Jr., assumed support of their parents. Homer’s mother was a dedicated amateur watercolorist. His first lessons in art are assumed to have come from her. His formal education ended with high school, and he immediately went to work....