The iconic Maine artist Winslow Homer’s monumental 1800s etchings will be featured in an exclusive Portland exhibit.
The show opens on July 4th Eve at Portland Museum of Art, which stewards Homer’s art studio at Prouts Neck.
“The show brings together Homer’s rarely seen etchings, alongside related paintings and watercolors, many tied to his time in Maine,” said Alexa Halper, exhibit spokeswoman.
The rarely-seen etchings were created between 1884 and 1889 at Homer’s seaside studio in Scarborough.
“The etchings, many of which highlight the sea and landscape, reveal the historic artist’s deep appreciation of Maine,” Halper said, “and showcase how critical his studio was in producing some of his most famed works.”
Given Homer’s position as a foundational American painter, the Portland museum sees the exhibit as a fitting way to highlight his artistic legacy and how Maine influenced his practice, in tandem with America’s 250th birthday.
“Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher” runs through October 18.
The show includes several lectures on Homer’s work and education.
Homer, who lived from 1836 – 1910, is mostly known for his watercolors yet in the 1880s he turned to etching to revisit some of his most iconic subjects.
From his studio at Prouts Neck, now preserved and interpreted by the Portland museum, Homer collaborated with New York printer George W. H. Ritchie to produce a series of prints that “reveal his technical mastery and continued fascination with the sea and wider natural world,” the museum said.
A fully illustrated catalogue, the first comprehensive study of Homer’s etchings, will accompany the exhibit, is co-published by the museum and Yale University Press.
The show is curated by Ramey Mize, as associate curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. and a former Portland museum associate curator.
As a Metropolitan Museum of Art research assistant Mize four years ago supported an exhibit called “Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents.”
