Thursday, November 5, 2009

Winslow Homer for $7.00 plus tax


Just found this for $7.00 in a thrift store on my way to dinner with my writer friends. Debated if I really needed it. It is 2 / 3.5 ' including a nice green matting and frame. My office is a Winslow Homer exhibit as it is. I have one 1880s "An Afterglow" from England and "Schooner At Key West" from 1903. The new one is the watercolor that later developed into this:
 

                                      
An oil that is probably over the top for Winslow. He hardly spoke to people and as far as I know didn't explain the story of this painting. It probably didn't have one. He was nicknamed the Obtuse Bard by his painter friends in the 1870s in NYC. His courtship of a lady named Helena DeKay (See Website link here) did not go anywhere because he did not talk. The Oil above was 1899, rather late, he died in 1910.
Anyway, I'm convinced the watercolor was based on something he saw. He sometimes staged his paintings, or had props in his studio that he would stick in as needed.

The sea was his id, if that explains anything. He was a serious drinker by this age and pretty much lived alone except for his contact with his family (brothers and their families) Most of the kids in the paintings are his nieces and nephews or the children of his patrons. He never married. I like "An Afterglow" because one of the women was his lover.
I bought it.
For me, I connect with the new watercolor. I've been feeling a little like a survivor as of late, wondering how I got here and how come I'm so lucky. Comes with edging past middle age I guess.

The albino moose I decided are twins. We know all about twins in my house.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

are you implying that i am a moose?

love, alexandra