work of the month


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Song of the Lark

Winslow Homer, 1876
Oil on Canvas, 98.1 x 61.6 cm
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. In Honor of Dr. T. Lane Stokes, 83.590

The year is 1876 - America's Centennial celebration. After the ravages of Civil War, an image of a young and able farmer in bountiful fields of wheat indeed captures a sense of national pride and optimism during this anniversary year. Art historians herald Winslow Homer (1836-1910) as one of the greatest American artists, as he illustrates a strong and rugged rural class in 19th-century America. Undoubtedly, he is recognized as the foremost genre painter of his time.

The career of this largely self-taught artist deepens and waxes philosophical as he ages during an era of wide-spread scientific and technological upheaval. Many of Homer's later paintings, some on display in the Chrysler's current exhibition, A Fair Wind: Maritime Paintings of Winslow Homer, reflect an increasing mood of "nature as perilous." As the artist's work matures, his subjects' relationship with nature becomes an issue of life and death. But Song of the Lark illustrates no stark reality. Rather, this painting captures a man's wistful and romantic communion with nature.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) developed a prolific art career that spanned 50 years, progressing ambitiously upon his move to New York in 1859 at the age of 23. In the 1870s, many of Homer's subjects included children playing, working and musing at the farm or by the sea. Song of the Lark, from the Chrysler's permanent collection, and Breezing Up, on loan from the National Gallery of Art, both were painted in the year 1876, and both have lively brush strokes and warm colors that reveal the artist's unique interpretation of reality. Many identify his technique as a harbinger to Impressionism. Homer visited Paris in 1866-67, where he saw the works of Barbizon School painters such as Th¹odore Rousseau and Jean FranÆois Millet, which may have influenced his style. These French artists painted directly from nature, and illustrated subjects from real life instead of idealized landscape. Such technique paved the way for the later Impressionist painters.

Homer's realism rarely fussed with tedious details. Song of the Lark, for example, suggests simplicity. What sounds do you hear in the picture? How does the mood of the painting differ from the bustling reality of the Industrial Revolution, which was churning busily at this time in history? The Chrysler's Chief Curator Jeff Harrison believes that "by depicting the farmer in Song of the Lark with a scythe, Homer nostalgically alludes to an earlier and simpler era in American farm life, when rugged individuals worked their land manually and alone." Is this scene in the field a spiritual moment? Does the farmer hear a bird song, or an inner calling? How would the painting's meaning change without its title?

Art historians have noted significant changes in the color and mood of Homer's paintings later in his career. "During the 1860s and 1870s, his figures worked or vacationed in amiable environments," according to critic Matthew Baigell, "About 1880, they began to live in hostile relationship to their surroundings. Nature was no longer benign." Compare the optimistic mood of Song of the Lark with a later work such as Kissing the Moon, 1904, on loan from the Addison Gallery of American Art. Do you see a difference in man's relationship with nature here? Was Homer influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, which emerged in the latter half of the 19th century? Was his darker mood and palette affected by a failed love relationship? Alas, no clear answers to such questions have emerged from the memoirs of those who knew Homer as a man of few words.

"But the more time you spend with Homer's work, the more complex it becomes, full of details you didn't notice the last time," says National Geographic writer Robert Poole, "You get the feeling that you are walking into the middle of an unfolding tale and find yourself filling in the next stage, off the canvas." Compare Song of the Lark with other Homer paintings touring this summer in the Chrysler's downstairs gallery, and discover how it fits into the larger framework of the artist's career. The unseen lark may, in fact, give a clue to understanding Homer's mastery of realism. What is unseen in Homer's paintings is as important to the story as what is seen. A Fair Wind: Maritime Paintings of Winslow Homer is on display at the Chrysler through September 3, 2000.

- Julie Strohkorb

RESOURCES

Baigell, Matthew. A Concise History of American Painting and Sculpture. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1984.

Craven, Wayne. American Art History and Culture. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1994.

Harrison, Jefferson C., The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections. Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum of Art, 1991.

Poole, Robert M. "Winslow Homer: American Original." National Geographic 194.6 (1998): 72-100.

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