Winslow Homer

Today we feature a portrait of Winslow Homer. He was one of the most famous artists of the 1800's. One of his most famous paintings was called "Snap the Whip", and showed children playing in front of a school. 

Winslow Homer got his start as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly in the Civil War. To begin with, he was responsible for transferring photographs taken by Matthew Brady onto wood blocks so a likeness of the photograph could be printed. This was done by creating line art of the photograph, and then carving the line art into a block of wood. The wood block was then used to "stamp" the picture into the newspaper. As time went on, he was used by Harper's Weekly as a War Illustrator, and he was sent to Civil War battles to draw the scenes of battle. After the war he became famous for his paintings.