England
Homer spent two years (1881 – 1882) in the English coastal village of Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear. Many of the paintings at Cullercoats took as their subjects working men and women and their daily heroism, imbued with a solidity and sobriety which was new to Homer's art, presaging the direction of his future work. He wrote, "The women are the working bees. Stout hardy creatures." His palette became constrained and sober; his paintings larger, more ambitious, and more deliberately conceived and executed. His subjects more universal and less nationalistic, more heroic by virtue of his unsentimental rendering. Although he moved away from the spontaneity and bright innocence of the American paintings of the 1860s and 1870s, Homer found a new style and vision which carried his talent into new realms.
Read more about this topic: Winslow Homer
Famous quotes containing the word england:
“In England if something goes wrong—say, if one finds a skunk in the garden—he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
“Our king went forth to Normandy,
With grace and might of chivalry,
The God for him wrought marvellously,
Wherefore England may call and cry
Deo gratias, Deo gratias Anglia
Redde pro victoria.”
—Unknown. The Agincourt Carol (l. 1–6)
“The old man forgot one thing. This England of his is Christian and Anglo-Saxon. And so are her corridors of power, and those who stalk them guard them with jealousy and venom.”
—Colin Welland (b. 1934)