Weekend with Winslow Homer - Hardcover

Beneduce, Ann K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847816222 ISBN 13: 9780847816224

Publisher: Rizzoli, 1993

Synopsis

American painter Winslow Homer talks about his life and work as if entertaining the reader for the weekend

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-The story of Homer's life (1836-1910) is told in the first person, sometimes explaining his involvement with technique and medium (e.g., he describes how a wood engraving is made from his sketches), at other times expounding on his lifelong love affair with nature and the people involved with it. Details of education, travel, kith and kin, money, and his increasingly popular and critical acclaim are well integrated into the narrative. Although, in the main, this mock autobiography does the job, readers will often sense the awkwardness of personal descriptions and self-reflections. A variety of black-and-white and some larger full-color reproductions are useful examples of his evolving style and consistent subject matter. All are presented clearly, the engravings with sharp definition of lines and the paintings showing their brushstrokes. (There are a couple of unfortunate distortions due to a tight binding that sucks parts of double-page spread paintings into the gutter.) Thirteen pages of supplements add value to the volume: a state-by-state listing of where works may be seen, a chronology, and a list of the pictures reproduced with appropriate details. There's no bibliography. Overall, the book delivers a load of information about a major American artist in an appealing manner.
Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

One of the better entries in a series that approaches artists through first-person reminiscences, ostensibly addressed by the artist to a guest. Though the device has its pitfalls-- some entries have been prolix and, worse, coy--Beneduce uses it creatively to explore the evolution, techniques, personal history, accomplishments, and most significant works of the great ``American Impressionist'' who tried Paris but came home to celebrate nature, especially in dramatic scenes of the sea and of country people at work. The illustrations here (some of the paintings, plus the period photos and engravings, are in b&w) are less striking than those in the concurrently published A Weekend with Rousseau, by Gilles Plazy ($19.95; ISBN: 0-8478-1717-2), but they are more carefully placed, while Beneduce's lucid, longer text is better organized and far superior to Plazy's confusingly arranged anecdotes. A fine introduction to an important American figure. (Biography. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0847816222
• ISBN 13: 9780847816224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 64