See Maine through Winslow Homer’s eyes

[](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/maine-travel/) Looking to get out of your house this summer and enjoy everything Maine has to offer? This story is part of our in-state travel guide designed to help you find the road less traveled, eat your way across the state and make the most of summertime in Maine. [Read more here](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/maine-travel/). This summer, Maine residents have a rare opportunity to experience Winslow Homer’s legacy in two remarkable ways: through a major exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art and a visit to the artist’s historic studio overlooking the rugged coast that inspired him.  The interior of Winslow Homer’s Prouts Neck studio. On the mantle is a hand-painted sign that says “Snakes! Snakes! Mice!”, which he made to scare off wandering visitors. _Photo provided by the Portland Museum of Art._ Opening Friday, Jul. 3 and running through Sunday, Oct. 18, “Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher” brings together the artist’s rare etchings alongside the paintings and watercolors that inspired them, offering fresh insight into an often-overlooked chapter of his career. The exhibition is the first devoted exclusively to Homer’s etching practice and explores how the artist used printmaking to revisit many of his most iconic subjects. But to fully appreciate Homer’s creative world, visitors should consider extending the experience beyond the museum galleries, touring the historic studio that’s only been open to the public since 2012 — and where you can see Homer’s own etched signature on a window pane. Standing on the rocky shoreline of Prouts Neck, the studio was a converted carriage house on Homer’s family estate. It’s where the artist lived and worked beginning in the early 1880s, a turning point in his career and around the time he created his painting “The Life Line,” a centerpiece of the show, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The etchings he made soon after, one of which is in the PMA’s collection, are on display as well.  Winslow Homer (United States, 1836–1910), _The Life Line_ \[Copyright proof\], 1884|1887, etching, sulfur tint, and drypoint with scraping, burnishing, and selective wiping in black ink on cream, very thick, moderately textured machine-made wove paper; plate paper, image: 12 5/16 x 17 5/16 inches, sheet: 16 1/4 x 21 1/8 inches. Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from Elizabeth and Robert Nanovic, 2021.1. Image courtesy The Old Print Shop.  Winslow Homer (United States, 1836–1910), _The Life Line_, 1884, oil on canvas, 28 5/8 x 44 3/4 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art. The George W. Elkins Collection, 1924, E1924-4-15. Preserved and interpreted by the PMA, the Winslow Homer Studio is a rare chance to step inside the very space where Homer developed the work that would establish him as one of America’s greatest artists. For Mainers, the experience is a reminder that some of the nation’s most significant cultural landmarks are right here at home. Many of the etchings featured in the exhibition were conceived while Homer worked from Prouts Neck. Collaborating with New York printer George Wistar Hodge Ritchie, Homer developed designs in Maine before sending plates south for printing. “Putting these etchings in dialogue with related paintings, drawings, and proofs will center Homer’s Maine studio as a critical site where these prints were conceived, connecting audiences to the physical and creative context of the artist’s work,” says Ramey Mize, former Associate Curator of American Art at the PMA and curator of the exhibition. The resulting works reveal how deeply the landscape around him influenced both his paintings and his experiments in printmaking. Parts of the landscape remain the same today. If you’ve ever done the Prouts Neck Cliff Walk at the right time of year, you may have noticed the studio’s exterior through the trees. It is a National Historic Landmark and a distinguished member of [Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios](https://artistshomes.org/), a program of the [National Trust for Historic Preservation](https://savingplaces.org/stories/from-winslow-homer-to-georgia-okeeffe-inside-historic-artists-homes-and-studios). Inside, guests gain a deeper understanding of Homer’s life and artistic process through his objects and the sense of space. Among the artifacts on display are his paint tubes, furniture and a hand-painted sign Homer used to discourage visitors from wandering onto his property: “Snakes! Snakes! Mice!” The studio is open seasonally each year from May through mid-November and is only accessible via pre-registered ticket through the PMA. Transportation to and from the museum in  Portland is required and included in the ticket price; the tour begins with an in-museum viewing of “Weatherbeaten,” an oil landscape Homer made of Prouts Neck in 1894. The exhibition will only be on view through October, but Homer’s connection to Maine endures. For those who call this state home, a visit to the studio is a chance to stand where one of America’s greatest artists stood, look out at the same restless Atlantic and see the world through his eyes. [](https://www.portlandmuseum.org/) [Sponsored by Portland Museum of Art](https://www.portlandmuseum.org/) Haven’t been in awhile? First-time visitor? See what makes the [Portland Museum of Art](https://www.portlandmuseum.org/) every Mainer’s home museum. Free museum admission for people under 21 and every Friday from 4–8 p.m. [Winslow Homer Studio Tours](https://www.portlandmuseum.org/visit/winslow-homer-studio-tours/)are between Thursday and Sunday, and must be reserved in advance. [Learn more about Portland Museum of Art](https://www.portlandmuseum.org/) Copy the Story Link Tagged: [Maine travel](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/maine-travel/), [sponsored](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/sponsored/)