Teaching Art History with Treefrog Treasures (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

After The Country School, Homer did a series of school related art works showing more images of the rural schools, their teachers and students. Perhaps the best known of these is Snap the Whip of 1872 which shows a group of boys playing a popular game during recess (another new addition to education at the time). In the background is the archetypal one room red schoolhouse which like the older country mill seen in The Old Mill was being already replaced by its urban multi-room and multi-story equivalent.

In 1877 Homer did his final school-related work a watercolor entitled Blackboard. I have included it here because it has a relationship to the increasing importance of training a future workforce for America’s growing industrial economy. The teacher is giving a lesson in the basic aspects of drawing to provide a foundation for those students who would require training it what were then called the Industrial Arts. The simple geometric forms were the preliminary steps towards mechanical drawing in a workshop or factory.

Illustrations:

Snap the Whip 1872 W. Homer
Blackboard 1877 W. Homer

 

[PolarBear]

Homer's interest in the subject of schools and education flourished in the 1870s during the final years of Reconstruction. I believe Homer's interest in schools was a direct result of his brother Arthur's work for the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas during 1868. While there he lobbied for schools, supplies and salaries for teachers to provide education for adults as well as children. He was eventually successful and in November of 1868 happily reported to his superiors "five Freedmen's schools in my district--two in charge of the Bureau and three supported by the Freedmen".

Arthur Homer's enthusiasm for providing education for African Americans was mirrored in Winslow's art of the 1870s which included works that supported literacy and black education. The first example of this appeared in the January 8, 1870 Harper's Weekly entitled 1860-1870. The print is meant to review the last decade from the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 through peace and Reconstruction after the war. In the bottom right corner is the image of a white school teacher and three of her pupils: two young white girls and a black girl about the same age. The teacher is reading to them and the alphabet and writing on a blackboard are directly behind them. This is certainly a tribute from Winslow to brother Arthur and his work in Texas in 1868.

In 1875 Winslow reaffirmed his commitment like Arthur to education for African Americans with his watercolor Taking A Sunflower to the Teacher which depicts a young black student holding a sunflower a perfect symbol of enlightenment. In the lower right hand corner is a slate tablet on which to practice his writing skills. The work is an icon of the world of knowledge awaiting this young man.


Illustrations:

1860-1870 W. Homer 1870
Detail of 1860-1870 Teacher & Pupils
Taking A Sunflower to the Teacher 187
The New Scholar: Diorama of Freedmen's School by Polarbear (Figures by Wm. Hocker)

To Be Continued with forthcoming installments on Garibaldi, Redshirts and Winslow Homer

 

[Go for Broke]

Loving the art lesson/history. Is your commentary the artist's thoughts or a historian's interpretation?

 

[PolarBear]

Loving the art lesson/history. Is your commentary the artist's thoughts or a historian's interpretation?

Glad you're enjoying this. Homer said very little about what his art meant. A number of his letters have survived, however, and he was interviewed during his lifetime by critics plus there are materials from his family. I have two reels of microfilm from the National Archives containing reports and letters from his brother Arthur while working for the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas. I also found a letter that Homer's father wrote to Lincoln during the war that defended John Fremont for emancipating slaves in Missouri in August 1861. I also do a lot of reading about the issues I am writing about. Garibaldi is a recent interest of mine. I also had two professors who were Homer scholars as teachers. My major project, however is looking at Homer in relation to land issues of Native Americans and Native Hawaiians in the 19th C. Homer had an uncle who tried to buy the Hawaiian islands in the 1850s for $5,000,000 but the King turned him down. The family was also related by marriage to Lorrin Thurston who carried out the 1893 coup.

Aloha!

Randy

 

[Julie]

Great thread Randy! Very much appreciated

Julie

 

[7th OVI]

Randy, this is just an incredible thread, I look for it everyday, great lesson on Homer, interesting about Hawaii, if I recall correctly, Col. Ellis of the 124th New York was involved with Hawaii before the war, I think he was head of their Navy? Anyway, love this thread, you ever do any research on Thomas Nast? Just curious. Chris

 

[PolarBear]

Randy, this is just an incredible thread, I look for it everyday, great lesson on Homer, interesting about Hawaii, if I recall correctly, Col. Ellis of the 124th New York was involved with Hawaii before the war, I think he was head of their Navy? Anyway, love this thread, you ever do any research on Thomas Nast? Just curious. Chris

Chris

Thank your for your comments and interest in following the thread

You are right about Ellis. Thanks for the tip:salute::

Randy

Col Ellis from Don Troiani's Civil War

 

[PolarBear]

Great thread Randy! Very much appreciated

Julie

Thank you Julie

 

[jazzeum]

Glad you're enjoying this. Homer said very little about what his art meant. A number of his letters have survived, however, and he was interviewed during his lifetime by critics plus there are materials from his family. I have two reels of microfilm from the National Archives containing reports and letters from his brother Arthur while working for the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas. I also found a letter that Homer's father wrote to Lincoln during the war that defended John Fremont for emancipating slaves in Missouri in August 1861. I also do a lot of reading about the issues I am writing about. Garibaldi is a recent interest of mine. I also had two professors who were Homer scholars as teachers. My major project, however is looking at Homer in relation to land issues of Native Americans and Native Hawaiians in the 19th C. Homer had an uncle who tried to buy the Hawaiian islands in the 1850s for $5,000,000 but the King turned him down. The family was also related by marriage to Lorrin Thurston who carried out the 1893 coup.

Aloha!

Randy

As I'm sure you know (but some may not), Lincoln rolled back Fremont's order for many reasons (legal and political) in that Fremont did not have the authority to make such an order, not to mention that he could not afford to upset the authorities in Missouri and have them withdraw from the Union. As an interesting aside, Fremont, when ordered to Washington to explain himself, sent his wife (daughter of Thomas Hart Benton) instead. The meeting didn't go well, with Lincoln labeling her "quite the female politician."

One of the best books on the subject is William C. Harris' Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union, which won the Lincoln Prize in 2012.

 

[jazzeum]

Homer's interest in the subject of schools and education flourished in the 1870s during the final years of Reconstruction. I believe Homer's interest in schools was a direct result of his brother Arthur's work for the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas during 1868. While there he lobbied for schools, supplies and salaries for teachers to provide education for adults as well as children. He was eventually successful and in November of 1868 happily reported to his superiors "five Freedmen's schools in my district--two in charge of the Bureau and three supported by the Freedmen".

Arthur Homer's enthusiasm for providing education for African Americans was mirrored in Winslow's art of the 1870s which included works that supported literacy and black education. The first example of this appeared in the January 8, 1870 Harper's Weekly entitled 1860-1870. The print is meant to review the last decade from the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 through peace and Reconstruction after the war. In the bottom right corner is the image of a white school teacher and three of her pupils: two young white girls and a black girl about the same age. The teacher is reading to them and the alphabet and writing on a blackboard are directly behind them. This is certainly a tribute from Winslow to brother Arthur and his work in Texas in 1868.

In 1875 Winslow reaffirmed his commitment like Arthur to education for African Americans with his watercolor Taking A Sunflower to the Teacher which depicts a young black student holding a sunflower a perfect symbol of enlightenment. In the lower right hand corner is a slate tablet on which to practice his writing skills. The work is an icon of the world of knowledge awaiting this young man.


Illustrations:

1860-1870 W. Homer 1870
Detail of 1860-1870 Teacher & Pupils
Taking A Sunflower to the Teacher 187
The New Scholar: Diorama of Freedmen's School by Polarbear (Figures by Wm. Hocker)

To Be Continued with forthcoming installments on Garibaldi, Redshirts and Winslow Homer

Randy, the first illustration reminds me of some of the work of Thomas Nast.

Brad

 

[PolarBear]

Randy, the first illustration reminds me of some of the work of Thomas Nast.

Brad

Yes that is a good analogy. Homer did other prints in this format such as The Songs of the War and News from the War. Both, of course worked for Harper's Weekly.
Randy

 

[PolarBear]

Randy, this is just an incredible thread, I look for it everyday, great lesson on Homer, interesting about Hawaii, if I recall correctly, Col. Ellis of the 124th New York was involved with Hawaii before the war, I think he was head of their Navy? Anyway, love this thread, you ever do any research on Thomas Nast? Just curious. Chris

Chris

I do look at Nast and sometimes relate his subjects to similar ones by Homer.

Randy

 

[jazzeum]

Yes that is a good analogy. Homer did other prints in this format such as The Songs of the War and News from the War. Both, of course worked for Harper's Weekly.
Randy

I wonder if Harper's preferred the layout similar to the one you posted since Nash did that also; his Emancipation comes to mind.

 

[PolarBear]

I wonder if Harper's preferred the layout similar to the one you posted since Nash did that also; his Emancipation comes to mind.

Brad

Yes that was pretty characteristic. It allowed them to tell an episodic storyline pre comic-strip.

Here is Homer's Our Women and the War

 

[PolarBear]

Part 5A

The Red Jacket: Fashion and Modernity

We have now looked at the contents of Homer's painting The Old Mill and its relation to other examples of his art. We have established that the subject matter combines aspects of two themes he was working on at the time: New England textile mills and millworkers and rural schoolhouses and teachers. I would now like to turn to the aspect of the painting that I see as the core of its meaning: the red jacket worn by the woman on the bridge.

The presence of the red jacket is representative of Homer's interest in the changing styles of women's fashion during the 19th Century. This was a trend that had its origins in the Paris of the 1860s: the Paris of the French Impressionists and the rise of Haute Couture (High Fashion). Paris boasted the most important fashion emporium in the world at that time, the House of Worth run by the English designer and entrepreneur Charles Frederick Worth. This was also the Paris of the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. In his art criticism, he had called for "the painter of modern life" who would create art works reflective of the modern scene. This is what the French painter Edouard Manet brought to 19th Century French art. He fulfilled Baudelaire's call for a painter of modern life. What was needed were artists who could capture the changing styles of modernity. For artist's like Manet and subsequently the Impressionists, women's rapidly changing fashions fit the bill.

Illustrations:

Charles Baudelaire
Charles F. Worth
House of Worth, Paris
Ball Gown by Worth 1872
Repose (1870-71) by Manet


To be continued

 

[PolarBear]

Part 5B

Between 1866--1867, Homer was in France where he was exposed to new European trends in art and culture. He was accompanied by Albert Kelsey a friend from Belmont and a Civil War veteran who had served in the Union Navy. Homer ran out of cash while in France and Kelsey paid for Winslow’s steamship ticket back to the United States. In gratitude Homer later gave him the painting of The Old Mill. Two of his Civil War paintings were shown at the 1867 Universal Exposition: The Bright Side (1865) and Prisoners from the Front (1866). Both were well received by critics and other visitors to the fair. In Paris he visited the Louvre and some of the popular nightspots. He produced two illustrations of the latter for Harper’s Weekly back in the states. His 1867 A Parisian Ball—Dancing at the Casino captures the cosmopolitan mixtures of Paris, including a Turkish gentleman among those watching the lively dancers in the foreground. The man standing two figures to the right of the Turk is possibly a self portrait of Homer. it is significant in this print and the one of the Louvre, that the women and their attire are given a prominent place in the compositions. Homer would give the same importance to women in his works done back in America in the late 1860s and during the decade of the 1870s as we shall see in my next posting. The Louvre illustration captures the increasing presence of women artists such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot (Manet's sister-in-law) in the 19th Century. Cassatt was in Paris during the time Homer was there and the standing woman in the Louvre may be Cassatt whose career like Homer's was underway. Although an American, Cassatt would spend most of her career in France.

Illustrations:
Winslow Homer & Albert Kelsey in France 1867
Universal Exposition Paris 1867
Prisoners from the From (1866) by Winslow Homer
Art Students and Copyists in the Louvre (1868) by Winslow Homer
A Parisian Ball--Dancing at the Casino (1867) by Winslow Homer

 

[PolarBear]

Part 5 C

Fashion Conscious

Below are pictures of Edouard Manet and Winslow Homer. Both are impeccably dressed and are proud to show off their stylish clothing. Homer was a regular customer of Brooks Brothers in New York City where he maintained a studio from the 1860s until 1883 when he moved to Prout's Neck Maine, where he lived and worked until his death in 1910. Like Manet, Homer made women and their styles of dress an important part of his art. Similar to Manet and the Impressionists (e.g. Monet, Renoir, Degas and Cassatt) were doing in France, he sought them out in resorts like Newport Rhode Island, Long Branch, New Jersey or the White Mountains of New Hampshire that grew in importance after the Civil War and into the Gilded Age (America 1870-1914). The woman in the red jacket as seen in The Old Mill is a representative of what came to be called "The New Woman": independent and no longer tied down to the world of domesticity. These young women sought a new degree of freedom in their lives. The Bridle Path of 1868 showing a self-assured young woman horseback riding in the White Mountains without a male escort epitomizes the New Woman.They also became the consumers of the latest trends in fashion. Homer like his contemporaries in France captured the evolution of their stylistic tastes. We see evidence of this in two paintings he did on the subject of croquet which was extremely popular in America in the late 1860s. Only three years separate the two paintings but the women's fashions have seen a significant change in style. Croquet placed men and women on an equal footing in terms of competition. This led more conservative Americans to view the sport in a negative light. In his 1866 rendering of the subject the women predominate over their male opponent who is shown kneeling on the ground with his face hidden from our view. In the second painting no male present.

Illustrations

Edouard Manet portrayed by fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour
Winslow Homer in Brooks Brothers suit. Albumen print
The Bridle Path 1868 by Winslow Homer
Croquet Scene 1866 by Winslow Homer
Croquet Match 1869 by Winslow Homer

NOTE: Movie Suggestions

If you want to see a good illustration of the New American Woman in action I highly recommend the 1974 film Daisy Miller starring Cybil Shepherd and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is based on the 1878 novel by Henry James

If you want to get an excellent view of the American Gilded Age (so called by Mark Twain in his novel of the same title critiquing the gaudiness and superficial quality of the era) you cannot do better than Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence 1993 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer. It is based on the novel of the same title by Edith Wharton

 

[7th OVI]

Again, great stuff, the Croquet Scene and Prisoners from the Front, are 2 of my favorites of his. I have used his and other contemporary artists as well as other sources to help date old 19th century images and original clothing. Homer always gave us numerous looks and kept up with the style changes to allow a compare and contrast in clothing design to create a progression. Almost a 19th century Project Runway of style history. Really enjoy this thread. Chris

 

[PolarBear]

Again, great stuff, the Croquet Scene and Prisoners from the Front, are 2 of my favorites of his. I have used his and other contemporary artists as well as other sources to help date old 19th century images and original clothing. Homer always gave us numerous looks and kept up with the style changes to allow a compare and contrast in clothing design to create a progression. Almost a 19th century Project Runway of style history. Really enjoy this thread. Chris

Chris

Thank you so much. Ken Osen is a big fan of Homer and also uses Homer's CW works for research.
More fashion history on Monday re the Garibaldi Jacket.

When I was at Syracuse University as Art Librarian and part time faculty member in Art History, I audited a class on the History of Fashion so I could better help art students in that program with their projects. My previous training as an undergrad and grad student had focused on paintings and sculpture.
Were you aware that Francis Channing Barlow in Prisoners was Homer's cousin?

Randy

 

[7th OVI]

Randy, was not aware that Barlow was his cousin. I understood that Homer visited Barlow during the war but never knew the connection. I thought it was maybe that Barlow worked for the NY Tribune before the war.

I wanted to study ante bellum American history and a minor in fashion or art back when I was young and powerful. Alas, things never worked out and went on into the business sector. Homer, Sheppard, Forbes are all great sources for contemporary illustrations and research. I know Ken has used a number of sources and does not surprise me Homer is one of them. He has some of the best ACW figures because of the research and how it is applied.

I never had any formal education on these subjects but have had some great opportunities to see original garments, images, paintings, statues or spend time reading on long business flights to get myself somewhat educated. Use to spend a lot of time going over contemporary periodicals, such as Godey, just to get a sense of fashion of the time period.

The Garibaldi jacket was one of the fashion trends that would eventually doom one piece women's dresses of the mid 19th century. Look forward to the next installment. Here is an image of what is thought to be either the Cleveland Zouave Light Guards or the Cleveland Cadets that would eventually become companies A and B respectively of the 7th Ohio. He is sporting a Zouave officers jacket. Photographer is Ryder from Cleveland. Chris :