ON THE THRESHOLD

For over a century, Winslow Homer has been canonized as one of the great American painters, if not the single greatest among them. His brooding Turner-esque seascapes, his seemingly playful images of beachside promenades, his grassy landscapes and hunting scenes have cornered a specific and enduring visual lexicon of the American nineteenth century. Yet, a key element of Homer’s work has often been sidelined in art historical narratives: Winslow Homer was an artist of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, the aftermath of what was arguably the nation’s first total war, and the resulting struggle to live amidst a fundamentally altered landscape.

Even the most joyful of Homer’s images feel sobering—because they are imbued with life’s daily struggles, and, just as often, the much larger, existential questions about destiny, mortality, and the social and political complexities of the period. His work, much like that of his contemporary Louisa May Alcott, applied a multifaceted prism to this moment in American history, allowing key cultural concepts, quiet ideals and simmering hypocrisies to refract outward.

Currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents” offers an opportunity to reflect on the multidimensionality of the artist and to situate him within his