From Publishers Weekly Though certainly more famous for his oil paintings, Winslow Homer was one of the first major artists to take watercolor seriously and to herald its acceptance in the 20th century as an art form in its own right, undertaken by stars like O'Keeffe, Prendergast and Hopper. Nearly 700 of his watercolors survive; 150-some are reproduced in The Watercolors of Winslow Homer by Miles Unger, a contributing New York Times critic. It's clear why these paintings, which seem like top-drawer book or magazine illustrations, hover in relative obscurity: the thin quality of the paint doesn't enrich Homer's rural and sea-faring subjects as does the texture he wrought from oil and canvas. But serious fans of turn-of-the-century American art will be delighted with this high-quality collection and Unger's learned text. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Read more From Library Journal Winslow Homer is without a doubt one of America's best-known artists and a popular subject for study. The freshness, vitality, and magnitude of Homer's watercolor paintings set them apart from his other celebrated works in graphic art and oil painting, and Unger, former editor of Art New England and a contributor to the New York Times, reemphasizes the history and significance of these paintings. Unger's writing is both lively and informed. But any assessment of Homer's watercolors owes a great debt to the scholarship of Lloyd Goodrich (Winslow Homer, Whitney Museum of Art, 1944) and Helen Cooper (Winslow Homer Watercolors, National Gallery of Art, 1986), and this work is no exception. The real strength of this book lies in the illustrations. Unger includes 140 of the nearly 700 Homer watercolors, including many lesser-known works representing the Gloucester coast, Prout's Neck, the Adirondacks, and the Bahamas. While Cooper's remains the definitive survey of Homer's watercolors, Unger has added an intelligent examination that beautifully illuminates some of the more obscure of the artist's works. Recommended especially for public libraries. Kraig Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
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