Homer, Hopper, Brown

Winslow Homer at the Washington DC National Gallery of Art

The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside), 1870

Hound and Hunter, 1892

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876

Compare the sailing picture of Homer with the one of Edward Hopper, from Corcoran:

Edward Hopper - Ground Swell, 1939

More than fifty years between Homer and Hopper. They share some similarities, though only up to a point. Hopper came each year in Massachusetts or Maine and produced there some of his masterpieces. Winslow Homer devoted all his mature years to the landscapes of Maine. Both were realists: however the realism of twentieth century is other thing than the one of the ninetieth.

I think at another comparison, between Winslow Homer and his contemporary, John George Brown, who painted sceneries from the neighboring Vermont. I saw only a painting of Brown, at an exhibition at Phillips. The guy was definitely much more idyllic than Winslow Homer. Here are images of some of Brown's works:

Heading Out, 1872

Claiming the Shot after the Hunt in the Adirondacks

The Longshoremen's Noon, 1879

Cornered, 1899

Boat Builder, c.1904

The best known paintings of Brown are perhaps those depicting country boys and girls, with sympathy and a bit of mild humor. Look at his shoeshine boys:

Shoeshine Boy, 1884

Can't Make It Out

(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)

(Winslow Homer)

(Hopper)