He traveled to Europe, and when he returned 18 months later, he concentrated on portraying our relationship with nature, especially the sea. By the end of the 1890s, he had become an icon and was rarely a target of art critics. The paintings in the exhibit are presented as they were shown at public spaces, rather than in chronological order, to allow visitors to see them as people would have seen them in the 1870s. The exhibit and its layout allow museum visitors to discover how a major American painter developed as an artist, says Erica Hirshler, curator of American paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Even though Homer is loved today, he wasn't always easy.
Most people do know the seascapes.
This exhibit allows a sort of filling out of the picture of his early work. After the exhibit ends May 6 in Kansas City, it heads to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 10 to Sept. 9, and then to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from Oct. 6 to Jan. 6, 2002. Read our policy on privacy and cookies.