From Publishers Weekly
When Winslow Homer settled at Prout's Neck, Maine, in 1883 at age 47, he was already a famous American artist. Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s takes into account the painter's earlier decades in New York, which featured a 15-year stint beginning in 1857 as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly. An explosion in art interest and art writing after the Civil War and a plethora of new influences from Europe converged in and around Homer's work, argues Margaret C. Conrads, a curator at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum. With 97 color plates, 58 b&w illus. and generous quotations from period literature, Conrads reconstructs a heady climate of artistic possibility and achievement. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Winslow Homer is perhaps one of the most studied American artists of any century, and there certainly has been no lack of scholarship devoted to his life and art. Conrads (Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) manages to pull off the improbable: an examination of Homer that breaks new ground and brings new insight to his development into one of America's brightest artistic stars. Conrads chronicles Homer's artistic growth during the 1870s by examining him through the eyes of his critics. The work is rife with positive and negative criticism of Homer, proffered by a new and growing legion of art critics all of whom were searching for a truly national art. This beautifully illustrated work (published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, which will travel to Los Angeles and Atlanta) features 97 color plates and 58 black-and-white illustrations. It succeeds in shedding new light not only on Homer's early influences but also on the national climate that precipitated his emergence as a key figure in American art. Highly recommended for museum, academic, and larger public libraries. Kraig A. Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Library Journal
An examination of Homer that breaks new ground and brings new insight to his development. . . .


Review
An examination of Homer that breaks new ground and brings new insight to his development into one of America's brightest artistic stars . . . It succeeds in shedding new light not only on Homer's early influences but also on the national climate that precipitated his emergence as a key figure in American art.


Book Description
Winslow Homer's luminous watercolor seascapes and highly spirited portraits of children and outdoorsmen are some of the most recognizable and cherished works in the history of American art. This catalogue, published in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition, examines his pictures from the 1870s, the least-studied period of this perennially popular American artist. Debunking the common myth that Homer worked in isolation, Margaret Conrads reveals him as a controversial artist who was an integral part of the dizzying New York art scene of the 1870s. Indeed, Homer was the American artist most frequently discussed by the press at this time--often with simultaneous commendation and vilification. By viewing Homer's works of the 1870s through the lens of contemporaneous criticism, the author explains how and why the painter embodied the critics' high hopes for an art that expressed national values. She finds reflected in his vivid images an ongoing struggle to meet these expectations, even as he challenged and helped to redefine the artistic conventions governing American aesthetics. With almost one hundred full-color plates and nearly sixty black-and-white illustrations, this handsome volume is a remarkable record of an important period not only in Winslow Homer's career but also in the fascinating art world of late-nineteenth-century America. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kansas City, Missouri February 18-May 6, 2001 Los Angeles County Museum of Art June 10-September 9, 2001 High Museum of Art, Atlanta October 6, 2001-January 6, 2002


From the Inside Flap
"The quality and inherent intellectual worth of this book are unquestionable. It is an extraordinary piece of work that does what few previous studies have been able to do: it shows Homer as an active participant in the critical and commercial art world of New York during the fascinating postbellum period. It is particularly good at chronicling the emergence of watercolor as a serious medium. And its survey of the entirety of the New York art press during more than a decade provides future scholars with the wherewithal to conduct previously undreamed of research into the reception of a wide variety of works of arts in the 1870s."--John Davis, Smith College, author of Landscape of Belief


About the Author
Margaret C. Conrads is the Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. She is the author of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and a coeditor of Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Winslow Homer's luminous watercolor seascapes and highly spirited portraits of children and outdoorsmen are some of the most recognizable and charished works in the history of American art. This catalogue, published in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition, examines his pictures from the 1870s, the least-studied period of this perennially popular American artist. Dbunking the common myth that Homer worked in isolation, Margaret Conrads reveals him as a controversial artist who was an integral part of the dizzying New York art scene of the 1870s. Indeed, Homer was the American artist most frequently discussed by the press at this time—often with simultaneous commendation and vilification.

By viewing Homer's works of the 1870s through the lens of contemporaneous criticism, the author explains how and why the painter embodied the critics' high hopes for an art that expressed national values. She finds reflected in his vivid images an ongoing struggle to meet these expectations, even as he challenged and helped to redefine the artistic conventions governing American aesthetics.

With almost one hundred full-color plates and nearly sixty black-and-white illustrations, this handsome volume is a remarkable record of an important period not only in Winslow Homer's career but also in the fascinating art world of late-nineteenth century America.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

When Winslow Homer settled at Prout's Neck, Maine, in 1883 at age 47, he was already a famous American artist. Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s takes into account the painter's earlier decades in New York, which featured a 15-year stint beginning in 1857 as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly. An explosion in art interest and art writing after the Civil War and a plethora of new influences from Europe converged in and around Homer's work, argues Margaret C. Conrads, a curator at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum. With 97 color plates, 58 b&w illus. and generous quotations from period literature, Conrads reconstructs a heady climate of artistic possibility and achievement. ( Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Winslow Homer is perhaps one of the most studied American artists of any century, and there certainly has been no lack of scholarship devoted to his life and art. Conrads (Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) manages to pull off the improbable: an examination of Homer that breaks new ground and brings new insight to his development into one of America's brightest artistic stars. Conrads chronicles Homer's artistic growth during the 1870s by examining him through the eyes of his critics. The work is rife with positive and negative criticism of Homer, proffered by a new and growing legion of art critics all of whom were searching for a truly national art. This beautifully illustrated work (published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, which will travel to Los Angeles and Atlanta) features 97 color plates and 58 black-and-white illustrations. It succeeds in shedding new light not only on Homer's early influences but also on the national climate that precipitated his emergence as a key figure in American art. Highly recommended for museum, academic, and larger public libraries. Kraig A. Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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