Rowing Home, 1890 by Winslow Homer

Rowing Home painting is a fine and masterful accompaniment to Homer's entire body, of natural inspiration by American art. Rowing Home depicts two sailors and a small vessel, heading home after either a long day fishing or just checking lines and a mildly volatile ocean setting. These types of watery pictures were what set Homer apart from many of the other fine American illustration-painters, of his time. No one could match the impressive array of genuinely spectacular rays of light that Homer could while also instilling a degree of reality as if the paintings were pictures. That was what Homer was paid for by Harper's Weekly for so many years of his life, illustrate the natural world, the Civil War, and anything else of interest, to the American people, through his artistic ability.

Rowing Home shows how Winslow Homer utilizes the effect of the colors, gold and red, to bring out the dramatic effect of the sea at sundown. The dropping red sun signifies that time is short for the sailors to get home, and rowing the boat, is the task at hand. One could almost feel the peacefulness of the sea yet also there is a hint of speculation and possibly even fear, that the shipmates may not make it in, before the sun sets, and the seas pick up. Winslow Homer is known as one of the most beloved illustrators of the 19th century and has been heralded, as the reason why, so many Americans, were able to see what was going on, not only in the country, but naturally, all around them. Winslow Homer is thought of as the illustrator for all of the 19th century, and his works of art, bear testament to this love of nature, and this admiration, of the people of America.