MS01.01.03.B01.F25.050

24

Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins provide us with a final
glimpse of the image of the Black American as shown in painting
prior to the turn of the century. Homer found the black subject
one to his liking and used it for historical documentation, first
for magazines, then the general interpertation of the power of the
black image in making formal composition. Most interesting
is the contrast to be noted in the way that Homer points Blacks in a
cotton field (SLIDE #57) [u]Upland Cotton[/u] over and against Walker's version of the same subject.Homer gives a living quality to
the working figures that does not occur in Walker's studies.
Beyond this note of criticism, Homer used black images as principal subjects that included aspects of life other then the field
experience, (SLIDE #58) [u]THE TURTLE POND[/u]. But Homer also produced sketches with the pickaninny image of the (SLIDE #59) [u]Jolly Cook[/u] dancing wildly while white soldiers looked on amusingly. His sojourns to the Caribbean showed black subjects in control of the
waters there just as he had done when painting the white seamen controlling the North Alantic waters (SLIDE #60) [u]Shark Fishing[/u].
The furies of the storm and the unpredictable currents of the
sea give title to this watercolor (SLIDE #61) called [u]Gulf Stream[/u].
The gleaming body of a black fisherman is sprawled in a drifting
boat in the sea near a Bahamian island. His documentation
of Black life is reminiscent of the depiction Walker gave
but Homer's sophistication as an artist raises our interest level
to see sensitivity the pity and deprivation associated with the newly
freed slaves.