WINSLOW HOMER | THE LIFE BRIGADE

[With]Doll & Richards, Boston, Massachusetts, 1883

Charles Head, Boston, Massachusetts, 1883 (acquired from the above) 

Margaret Head Stockton, by 1938 (his daughter, by descent)

Acquired by the present owners from the above

"Fine Arts: New Works in the Studios of Our Painters and Sculptors," New York Herald, February 25, 1883, n.p.

"The Studio: Boston Items," Art Interchange II, December 16, 1883, p. 145

William Howe Downes, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989, p. 103

Lloyd Goodrich and Abigail Booth Gerdts, Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1883 through 1889, vol. IV.2, New York, 2012, no. 1177, p. 232, illustrated

Winslow Homer executed The Life Brigade in 1883, while living in the small fishing village of Cullercoats on the northeastern coast of England. Though Homer began to work in watercolor a decade before, his sojourn in England instigated a pivotal change in his technique and subject matter. The time the artist spent in Cullercoats was particularly transformative. As Lloyd Goodrich explains, “In every way the Tynemouth experience marked a turning point in Homer’s career. It brought [Homer] into close contact with the sea, henceforth his dominant theme. It witnessed a phenomenal maturing in mind and vision. It resulted in a long step forward in technical mastery. It brought him his greatest acclaim and his most solid financial rewards up to that time. And it settled in his mind the kind of life he wanted to lead and the kind of art he wanted to produce” (Winslow Homer, New York, 1944, p. 82).

Homer continued to depict the perils of sea after leaving England and throughout the remainder of his career, particularly during his time spent in Prouts Neck, Maine. It is there that he completed The Life Line (Fig. 1), an 1884 oil painting of the dangerous rescue during a harrowing storm. Foreshadowing the likely fate of the fishermen in The Life Brigade, The Life Line also depicts the immense power of the sea in the midst of a turbulent storm.