WINSLOW HOMER: AN AMERICAN VISION, by Randall C. Griffin, is the first major critical survey on the life and work of Homer, one of America's best-loved artists, in the last decade. The book features every one of his major paintings alongside a remarkable selection of his lesser-known etchings and woodcuts. Griffin's thoroughly researched, yet readable study, not only presents a full account of Homer's life and work, but also a fresh and provocative reassessment of his place in the history of American art.

Randall Griffin, Associate Professor of Art History at Southern Methodist University and an authority on Homer, begins his study of the life and works of the artist with the astute observation, "Like the poems of Walt Whitman, the pictures of Georgia O'Keeffe, the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the music of Duke Ellington, the works of Winslow have helped shape America's view of itself." Griffin argues that Homer's work exemplifies the aspiration to create specifically American subjects and a specifically American character.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was born in Boston, Massachusetts the same year that Davey Crockett died at the Alamo. He began his career a magazine illustrator and soon becoming a regular contributor to Harper's Weekly. In the early 1860's, Homer was sent by his editor to the front lines of The Civil War, where he began to work on woodcuts and lithographs of wartime encampments, some of his lesser-known pieces that are included in this monograph. In the post-war years Homer turned his attention to the American countryside and its people, and produced Snap the Whip, a painting thought by many to be his best work. This painting was embraced by critics as a nationalist masterpiece, reaffirming American ideals and values that had been lost during the war. In 1883, Homer moved to the New England fishing village of Prout's Neck, Maine and, utilizing his watercolor skills, began what was to become his best-known period of seascapes and nautical scenes.

Griffin presents an academic yet approachable study of this American classic, expanding on the criticisms and themes of Homer's work, such as post-war American values, the relationship between nature and man, the American pastoral, and the loss of manhood control. WINSLOW HOMER: AN AMERICAN VISION presents an exceptional array of Homer's gorgeous paintings, sketches and watercolors and is the most up to date monograph available on the artist. This beautiful selection of works, paired with Griffin's original research and fresh interpretation, makes this a timeless book that will compliment any library as well as satisfy the needs of scholars and general readers alike.