PMA’s Winslow Homer exhibit recasts the artist in a fresh medium | Column
Portland Museum of Art Hosts Rare Exhibition Celebrating Winslow Homer's Etchings as a Distinct Art Form
A landmark exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art is reshaping how art historians and the public understand Winslow Homer, one of America's most celebrated artists. "Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher," on view through Oct. 18, positions the artist's etchings not as commercial afterthoughts to his famous paintings, but as central achievements worthy of serious study on their own merits.
The show is exclusive to Portland, meaning visitors from across New England and beyond have a limited window to see works borrowed from major institutions including the Clark Art Institute and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The exhibition is co-curated by Ramey Mize and Judith C. Walsh. In her introductory essay, Mize highlights a revealing statement Homer made late in his career, asserting that his etchings, along with some of his watercolors, were "as good work…as I ever did."
That claim runs counter to more than a century of conventional thinking, which held that Homer turned to etching primarily as a way to capitalize on the success of his paintings. The exhibition pushes back against that notion by demonstrating how Homer repeatedly returned to subjects like "The Life Line," "Perils of the Sea" and "Mending the Tears" to explore new technical possibilities. In some cases, he developed his etchings alongside his paintings, using them to work through questions of transparency, opacity and composition.
Walsh, in her essay titled "From Idea to Impression: The Mechanics of Winslow Homer's Etchings," traces how Homer's relationship with professional printers shaped the evolution of his prints. After initially working with printer George Wistar Hodge Ritchie, Homer moved in 1884 to the studio of Christian Klackner. Walsh describes the switch as both an artistic and business decision, noting that under Klackner's guidance, the etchings began to display "an increasing concern with finish to enhance their marketability."
One of the exhibition's most striking sections places three different inked versions of Homer's 1884 etching "The Life Line" alongside the original oil-on-canvas masterpiece. All three etchings were pulled by Ritchie, yet each produces a strikingly different mood. A brown-inked version reads as calmer, with empty spaces suggesting the sun breaking through clouds. A blue-inked artist's proof, dated 1884/1887, intensifies the drama of the waves, making the turbulent ocean the first thing the eye registers rather than the rescue at the center of the composition. A third version in black ink, also dated 1884/1887, unifies all elements of the scene.
Homer returned to the "Life Line" theme once more in 1889, producing some of his final etchings. Kathleen A. Foster, writing in her catalog essay "Saved, 1889," suggests Homer may have been dissatisfied with the earlier prints, but adds that "more importantly, the romance in the subject continued to abide in his imagination." These later versions enlarge the figures and remove the distant shipwreck from the original painting, bringing the emotional stakes to the forefront. Foster's analysis points to how Homer made the sailor's grip on the woman more explicit, with the woman's wet hair tangling below his fingers, while the sailor's head disappears beneath a fringed shawl that takes on what Foster describes as "a shaggy, oddly monstrous silhouette."
The exhibition also reveals that some of Homer's prints predated his better-known paintings. The wood engraving "Sharpshooter" appeared in an 1862 issue of Harper's Weekly, more than a year before the 1863 oil painting. Comparing the two versions, viewers can see how Homer refined his vision, eliminating a canteen hanging on the tree and filling in the pine needle-covered branches in the painted version.
The differences between Homer's paintings and his prints also raise broader questions about his working methods. In many cases, his etchings contain considerably more visual detail than the corresponding paintings. His 1873 work "The Recess (Kept In)" demonstrates this vividly. The engraving depicts a classroom scene full of intricate detail: numbers and letters on the blackboard, scattered books, a map of North and Central America on the wall and children visible outside the window. The painting simplifies nearly all of these elements, removing the chalk markings, reducing the books, eliminating the map and softening the view through the window.
The disparity suggests Homer was working in two distinct artistic worlds simultaneously. While etching and engraving techniques were experiencing a revival between 1850 and 1930 but largely followed established conventions, painting was undergoing a radical transformation. The looser, more expressive styles of Honoré Daumier, Édouard Manet, François Millet, James McNeill Whistler and Berthe Morisot were giving way to the Impressionists in the 1870s. Homer's paintings reflect that shift toward reductive compositions and away from dense realism, even as his etchings preserved a more detailed, traditional approach.
Walsh's research, informed by her expertise in paper analysis, has helped clarify which printers produced which works. Klackner favored pale cream, handmade Japanese vellum designed to mimic parchment, while Ritchie often used thick, blued-white Western machine-made paper.
An instructional video in the gallery walks visitors through the various techniques Homer employed, including stopping out, roulette, drypoint, remarques and burnishing, all detailed further in the exhibition catalog.
The exhibition follows on the heels of another major Homer-focused show, a recent exhibition of Homer watercolors at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Together, the two presentations underscore the depth and continuing relevance of an artist whose work continues to reward fresh examination.
The Portland Museum of Art is located at 7 Congress Square in Portland. The museum is open Monday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Fridays. Admission is $20 for general visitors, $18 for seniors and students 22 and over, and free for visitors 21 and under. More information is available at portlandmuseum.org or by calling (207) 775-6148.
