By WKTV Staff
Highlighting lesser known works of Winslow Homer — one of the most significant American artists of the 19th Century — the Muskegon Museum of Art opened a new exhibition, “Winslow Homer: Illustrating a Nation”, last week and it will be on display through March 20.
Homer was famed for his dramatic depictions of people and nature, as well as his illustrations of day-to-day life, including the battles of the Civil War which were published in Harper’s Weekly, a New York City based illustrated magazine that extensively covered the American Civil War.
The exhibition features several of Homer’s best known images from the era, including “The Noon Recess”, “Snap the Whip”, “A Sharpshooter on Picket Duty”, and “The Dinner Horn” — a companion image to the MMA’s oil painting “Answering the Horn”. Other works in the exhibition depict illustrations of leisure, work, and the everyday lives of people, as well as dramatic scenes and circumstances.
In 1861, Harper’s Weekly assigned Homer to illustrate the events of the Civil War, which brought his work to the forefront of the nation. Homer captured the day-to-day events of the war, illustrating battles, soldiers in conflict and at rest, and the effects of the war on the families at home. Today, the Harper’s Weekly illustrations serve as a direct record of the events of the Civil War.
The Muskegon Museum of Art is located at 296 W. Webster Ave. For more information visit muskegonartmuseum.org.
