Though a Bostonian by birth and upbringing, Winslow Homer lived and maintained his studio in New York City for twenty-five years, establishing himself as a leading figure in New York’s art world. In 1881, determined to broaden his status as a painter, Homer journeyed to Great Britain. During his trip, major changes appeared in nearly everything he did as a painter. The changes came so rapidly during his first months abroad that there can be little doubt that the crucial turning point occurred during his first weeks in London. After his return to New York in November of 1882 and during his later years in Maine, the sequence of major oil paintings that came from his brush owed much, in the most fundamental ways, to transformations that began in London.

Tatham’s Winslow Homer in London: A New York Artist Abroad, 1881–1882 is the first to examine in detail this preeminent American painter’s crucial weeks in London during his year and half in Great Britain. Tatham presents new information concerning Homer’s time in the city, the centuries-old American associations of his London neighborhood, and his visits to London art institutions; he also considers in detail the artist’s iconic painting The Houses of Parliament. Concluding chapters consider New York’s reception of Homer’s post-London paintings from the fishing village of Cullercoats and show how London and this village together formed the foundation for the major paintings of the artist’s later career. Tatham’s acute examination is enhanced with several illustrations of Homer’s most celebrated paintings.

Author
David Tatham is professor emeritus of fine arts at Syracuse University. His books on nineteenth-century art include Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press (winner of the Ewell L. Newman book award), Winslow Homer and the Illustrated Book, and Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks, all published by Syracuse University Press.