From November 2, 2025, to January 19, 2026, the Museum of High quality Arts, Boston presents the exhibition “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor”
Supply: MFA Boston · Picture: Winslow Homer, “The Blue Boat”, 1892. Museum of High quality Arts, Boston
American artist Winslow Homer (1836–1910) reworked the medium of watercolor by means of his relentless spirit of experimentation. His luminous views transport viewers to the rugged Maine coast, the Adirondack Mountains, seaside England, sun-drenched Caribbean waters, and past. The MFA homes the most important assortment of Homer’s watercolors on the planet, although the works’ fragility and sensitivity to mild means they haven’t been displayed collectively in almost half a century.
This exhibition brings dozens of the MFA’s Homer watercolors again into the galleries for a brand new technology to expertise, alongside a number of associated oils, drawings, and prints by the artist. With materials starting from Homer’s childhood drawings all the best way to his ultimate canvas, left unfinished on the time of his dying, guests can observe the key chapters in his profession and be taught concerning the numerous environments—ecological, inventive, social, and financial—that formed his enduring work in watercolor.
Born in Boston, Homer had an extended relationship with New England and the MFA, which was one of many first museums to accumulate a portray by the artist, Fog Warning (1885), in 1894. The primary watercolor, Leaping Trout (1889), got here into the gathering quickly after, and over the twentieth century the Museum amassed virtually 50 watercolors and 11 oil work by Homer, creating one of the crucial vital collections of Homer’s work throughout media.
Author Henry James famously described Homer as an artist “who sees everything at once with its envelope of light and air”—a becoming description of a painter who utilized the distinctive qualities of watercolor to seize the ephemeral, fleeting nature of his material. From the serene waters in his iconic The Blue Boat (1892) to the drama of Breaking Wave (Prout’s Neck) (1887), “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor” invitations guests to rejoice the artist’s mastery of the medium and the progressive strategies he pioneered. The exhibition is accompanied by a forthcoming e-book from MFA Publications.
