Winslow Homer's "Unsentimental Realism"

August 9, 2004 By: Marshall Cutchin

It was fishing that led Winslow Homer to the Adirondacks of New York State to record moments in American angling like that captured in “Casting, A Rise” (1889) and “Pickerel Fishing” (1892). “To paraphrase the American art critic Robert Hughes, if you want to see Thoreau’s America turning into Teddy Roosevelt’s, then Homer’s the artist for you.” An exhibition of 15 of Homer’s works made while visiting Minerva and Keene Valley is on display at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, through September 6.
If you’re a fan of Homer’s work or American sporting art, you might want to consider Winslow Homer: Artist and Angler (2003). “Homer’s fly-fishing paintings are an immensely varied and little-understood aspect of his art. They serve as a counterpoint to all his other work, especially in the decades of the 1880s and beyond when fly-fishing represented a regular and sustained activity for the artist.”