1836-1910, American landscape, marine, and genre painter. Homer was born in Boston, where he later worked as a lithographer and illustrator. In 1861 he was sent to the battlefront as correspondent for Harper's Weekly, his work winning international acclaim. Many of his postwar studies of everyday life, such as Crack the Whip (Metropolitan Mus.), date from this period, during which he was a popular magazine illustrator. In 1876, Homer abandoned illustration to devote himself to painting. He found his inspiration in the American scene and, eventually, in the sea, which he painted at Prouts Neck, Maine, in the summer and...
