The Life Line

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Inspired by: Winslow Homer - The Life Line – 1884

In 1881 Homer spent a year in the coastal town of Cullercoats, England. A fishing village, and an artist’s colony, which attracted painters to its beautiful landscapes and the sea. There he witnessed the life brigade rescue of a floundering ship. It was the essence of man against the sea, the driving force of his early marine paintings.

Two years later, in Atlantic City, new Jersey, he saw a demonstration of the breeches buoy, a recent innovation in lifesaving technology. Secured firmly to ship and shore, the device permitted the transfer of stranded passengers. The following year he painted The Life Line, one of several he did at that time on the rescue theme. In 1866, the apparatus was first used when the brigantine Tenterden, escaping a hurricane, floundered at the mouth of the Tyne in England. The local life brigade rescued the crew along with the Captain’s wife and child. Could this be the wife?

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Winslow Homer - A Huntsman and Dogs

Inspired by: Winslow Homer - A Huntsman and Dog

Homer and his brother were avid hunters and anglers. They spent forty years in pursuit of their avocation. In 1886 they joined the Northwoods Club. An Adirondack hunting and fishing preserve for the well to do from NY and Boston. It was there that he created his sports paintings using members and their guides as his subjects.

When we think of Homer’s Adirondacks we see lush streams and forests, but that began to change. In the 1880’s a movement arose to save the Adirondacks from the spread of lumbering, railroads and factories. In many respects this painting is his protest banner.

The mountainside has been denuded, and the huntsman steps over the base of a tree felled by loggers. It was painted one year before the Forrest Preserve legislation provided for the establishment of the Adirondack Park. Two years later at the New York Constitutional Convention, they drew up a covenant which stated the Adirondack Forest Preserve would be "forever wild."