Winslow Homer: Force of Nature – an ‘eye-opening odyssey’ of an exhibition
National Gallery show aims ‘to enlarge Homer’s transatlantic reputation’ – and it deserves to succeed

Few outside his native USA will be familiar with the artist Winslow Homer, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. Our national collection contains not a single “significant painting” of his, and if he is known at all on these shores, it is as a “boat painter” whose work is but a footnote in the story of 19th century art.
Yet in America, Homer (1836-1910) is a totemic figure – and, as this “compelling” exhibition at the National Gallery demonstrates, he is venerated for good reason. A largely self-taught artist, he was a singular painter with “a talent for storytelling” and a knack for injecting his canvases with an overwhelming drama that makes the work of his British contemporaries look fussy and affected by comparison.
The show brings together a stunning selection of his work, from the awe-inspiring seascapes for which he is best known, to paintings depicting the plight of freed slaves in the Bible Belt, to “everyday scenes” of 19th century American life. It gives us a picture of a pioneering artist with a refreshingly ambiguous outlook, a painter who “knew how to trigger interest and keep you guessing”. The aim of this “involving” display is “to enlarge Homer’s transatlantic reputation”, and it deserves to succeed.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Appeal of conflict and danger
Born into a “well-to-do New England family”, Homer established himself chronicling the Civil War as an illustrator-correspondent for Harper’s Weekly magazine, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Clearly, conflict and danger appealed to him as subject matter: “he loved painting guns, shipwrecks, hunting scenes, freakish waves”. A transformative moment came during a stay in – of all places – a Northumbrian coastal village in 1881-82, when Homer found himself “transfixed by the elemental struggles of its fisherfolk”, and introduced a sense of “keening grandeur” to the maritime paintings he then favoured.
Perhaps the most famous of these is The Gulf Stream (1899), in which a “cartoonish, musclebound” black sailor clings to a boat with a broken mast, beset by swelling waves and some rather unconvincing sharks. “If this is a masterpiece, it’s a faintly ridiculous one.” The same could be said of much else here: the “downright peculiar” Undertow (1886), for instance, sees a group of semi-nude men, “as ripped as classical statuary”, rescuing women from the waves. We do see the odd “strong and memorable” painting here, but for the most part, it’s hard to get too excited about Homer. His work has “too much boyish, adventuresome melodrama, and insufficient mystery”.
Undeniably inconsistent work
“Homer can be a clumsy artist,” said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. His work is undeniably inconsistent: he was “deeply chromatic and wild” one moment, “a bit dull” the next. Yet he has “an intensity and passion”, as well as a great eye for a resonant symbol.
His works that deal with the Civil War and the end of slavery are particularly arresting: Sharpshooter (1863), a painting developed from his war sketches, depicts a Union sniper aiming his rifle from a tree, his face “a blur”; A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) sees an elderly white former slave-owner visiting a black family who once belonged to her. The family stare at their visitor “with much more in their eyes than can ever be said – a lifetime and more of questions and accusations”. For all of Homer’s limitations, this show is an “eye-opening odyssey”.
National Gallery, London WC2. Until 8 January 2023
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Sail in style onboard the brand-new Explora II
The Week Recommends Hit the high seas on a luxury cruise from Barcelona to Rome
-
Is the EU funding Russia more than Ukraine?
The Explainer EU remains largest importer of Russian fossil fuels despite sanctions aimed at crippling Kremlin's war effort
-
Posh crisps: an 'elite' tier of snacking
The Week Recommends Hand-cooked and dusted in 'decadent' flavours, the humble potato chip is being elevated to new levels
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse