Eight Bells (painting)
Eight Bells is an 1886 oil painting by the American artist Winslow Homer. It depicts two sailors determining their ship's latitude. It is one of Homer's best-known paintings[2] and the last of his major paintings of the 1880s that dramatically chronicle man's relationship to the ocean.[3]
History and description
Eight Bells was the outgrowth of a series of oil paintings that Homer made using three wooden panels he found in the cabin of his brother's
The painting's title is a reference to usage of the
More monumental than the three panels that preceded it, the two figures dominate the foreground of Eight Bells, and the details of the ship are minimally rendered.[2] Homer shows the figure at left using an octant to take a reading of the sun, the other apparently reading the altitude of a completed sight on his octant. The moment is prosaic, yet it is presented as a heroic image.[5] In 1887 Homer produced an etching based on the painting, in which he further minimized the ship's rigging and diminished the area of sky, thereby focusing more on the figures.[5]
Eight Bells was painted the same year as another of Homer's major paintings, Undertow, both at a time when sales of the artist's work were slow, and he complained of "standing on one leg, one day, and another leg, some other day, and looking in vain for profits."[6] The painting sold the following year, for the reportedly low price of $400 (approximately $13,000 today), and was the first oil painting Homer had sold in over three years.[5] Nonetheless, Homer's disappointment in his inability to find buyers prompted him to stop painting in oils until 1890.[7]
Reception
When Eight Bells was exhibited in 1888, it was praised by critics who observed that it was more complex than a purely naturalistic rendering: "For he has caught the color and motion of the greenish waves, white-capped and rolling, the strength of the dark clouds broken with a rift of sunlight, and the sturdy, manly character of the sailors at the rail. In short, he has seen and told in a strong painter's manner what there was of beauty and interest in the scene."[5] A later biographer wrote of the painting that the men "performing their required tasks, immediately engage our confidence in their competence to deal effectively with any situation the treachery or violence of the sea may produce."[8]
The American artist
References
- ^ "Collection Spotlight: Eight Bells". Addison Gallery of American Art. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ a b c d e Cikovsky, 236
- ^ "Spotlight". Addison Gallery of American Art. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ Mixter, 297
- ^ a b c d Cikovsky, 237
- ^ Cooper, 157
- ^ Cikovsky, 190
- ^ Gardner, 214
- ^ "N. C. Wyeth - Painter and Illustrator". Farnsworth Museum. Archived from the original on 2010-12-30. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^ "N.C. Wyeth". Farnsworth Museum.
Sources
- Cikovsky, Nicolai Jr; Kelly, Franklin (1995). Winslow Homer. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. ISBN 0-89468-217-2.
- Cooper, Helen A. (1986). Winslow Homer Watercolors. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. ISBN 0-300-03695-7.
- Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck (1961). Winslow Homer, American Artist: his World and his Work. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.
- Mixter, George W. (1979). Primer of Navigation (Sixth ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
External links
