Description
Winslow Homer, who rose to national prominence in the 1860s for his magazine illustrations and oil paintings of modern American life, took up watercolor in the 1870s. 'Fresh Air' is one of the most ambitious of an early series of plein air watercolors depicting fancifully dressed shepherdesses that Homer made at Houghton Farm, a patron's country estate in upstate New York. He created brilliant effects of light and atmosphere by exploiting the natural transparency of the medium and the brightness of the white paper. To achieve the subtle coloration in the sky, he applied overlapping washes of grays, pinks, and blues and then blotted them together.
Descriptive medium: Watercolor heightened with white opaque watercolor, with scraping and selectively applied glaze, over charcoal on moderately thick, rough-textured wove paper
More details about this record can be found on the collection website
Image Licence
No known copyright restrictions
Image Credit
Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum
Location
Houghton Farm, Mountainville, New York, USA
Country
USA
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
People & Society