Winslow Homer, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836, was an American landscape painter. He grew up being taught to paint by his mother, who was an avid watercolour painter. It is also said that he inherited many of her traits, on top of her painting skill, including her wit, strong will and sociable temperament. While Homer was average in school, he showed an early inclination towards the arts, and began pursuing painting at a young age when he decided to work as an apprentice under J.H. Bufford for two years at 19 years old.

He led a successful career as an illustrator, working mostly for magazines in New England. His success is commonly attributed to his adaptability, working on everything from wood carvings to paintings of various mediums to etchings.

One of his employers, Harper’s Weekly, sent him to the front lines of the civil war where he drew and painted the soldiers in every state from rest to mid-battle. Including his various travels post-war, this expanded his body of work from illustration into being a landscape painter that he is now known for.

His style relies on heavy contrast and colour. Many of his subjects are painted in lighting in which it casts a strong shadow, or they are obscured completely. He works with loose brush strokes in his oil paintings, and his techniques for capturing water mid-motion are almost unmatched.