Washington Allston suggested in his "Lectures on Art," artists should use such images in paintings as a device to convey additional ideas and feelings. The effect of such a mechanism may be greater when the viewer is not consciously aware of the cause. Homer's use of Allston's device can be seen throughout his works, beginning with his earliest childhood drawings. The paper Homer's Childhood in Cambridge presents a detailed discussion of Homer's childhood in Cambridge and Allston's probable influence.
An artist who paints the moon might "improve," or idealize, the image of the "man in the moon." Homer idealized images that he painted. This can be seen in examples where a sketch is available to compare with the final work. Especially see the Boat Builders example.
Images shown here as examples are among the easiest to see, which is the first reason they were selected. Seeing the sample images is not enough however, since it is important for viewers to recognize that Homer actually saw and intentionally painted such images. More importantly therefore, the examples shown here were primarily selected because they seem most likely to be recognized as things Homer actually saw and represented, rather than merely projections created by my imagination.
Homer was a realist, but he saw more than just objects physically present. He also saw and painted a personal and obtuse phenomenal reality which is the subject of this web site. The written materials on this site provide extensive background details, in order to help place the private side of "The Obtuse Bard" in context. The paper Fully Understood? presents a discussion of evidence indicating that Homer and his friends felt there was much more to his work than was publically known and appreciated. Since Homer may have realized the effect of these images functioned best subliminally, his fellow artists may have felt bound not to specifically discuss this hidden aspect of his work.
With the visual examples, I have taken a search/answer page approach to give the viewer an opportunity to try to "discover" the sample images before being shown. Discovering the images results in a more direct communication with Winslow Homer and is more effective as visual training. Be warned however: there are seemingly endless images to be discovered within Homer's works. Therefore, do not be surprised to find images in addition to the samples. Also, as you look at one image, you may suddenly see an entirely different overlapping, or switching image. Once you start to see these "hidden" images, you will know that your imagination has begun reading the obtuse visual poetry of Winslow Homer.
Thank you for viewing this site.
Peter Bueschen
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| Click on items in this column | |
| Visual evidence |
The visual examples used here were not the first images I saw in 1988.
These images were selected from hundreds I have seen, because they are
the easiest to show others and because they are the most convincing.
I am reminded how I felt when I was first learning to appreciate subtle
meanings in poetry. I thought my teacher had a wonderful imagination,
but could not believe he was reading what the poet actually meant to suggest.
Slowly and gradually, I too became able to at least scratch the surface
of great poetry. Homer's visual poetry is just as rich and subtle.
The papers present background information explaining why Homer painted such images, but please note that I have been guided by what I see in Homer's paintings. I began researching and writing only after I was advised that people would view what I saw as my projections, rather than a reading of Homer's projections, unless I could provide a logical explanation why he might have painted such images. I was astonished when I read Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana Sr, Benjamin Welles, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and William Cullen Bryant. |
| Written evidence |
Written statements by Edwin Austin Abbey and John LaFarge indicate that Homer's work was somehow not fully understood. John Beatty wrote, after a visit with Homer, that Homer felt not understood. Even Homer wrote in a letter to Beatty, "What is the use? The people are too stupid. They do not understand." Winslow Homer grew up in the then small town of Cambridge Massachusetts surrounded by Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana Sr., Benjamin Welles, William Ellery Channing, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Louis Agassiz and their views. Poetry that refers to seeing such secondary images. |
| Related links |
Through our eyes, what we see and how we are effected is always indirect, processed by our mind, consciously and unconsciously, integrated and filtered with our own unique past experience. Below are some selected links, mostly from non-art sources, that may expand your thinking about visual imagination and human perception. Compare this to LaFarge's comments about Homer discussed in my section titled On The Imagination of the Artist in Fully Understood?. A resource website for the study of imagination and mental images and their relevance to the understanding of consciousness and cognition, as approached primarily through the methods of analytical philosophy, experimental psychology, cognitive science, and the history of ideas/intellectual history. This is a link to a review by two neuroscientists. They include a discussion of blindsight. Especially note the section titled Action without Seeing. Experimental evidence supports the existence of two separate neurological vision systems. While the one visual system functions with conscious awareness, the other functions entirely without any conscious awareness. Blindsight individuals are people who are blinded by physical brain damage and cannot consciously see, yet they still see unconsciously via some other undamaged brain mechanism. |
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