The paintings by Homer in the Clark collection illustrate various histories. They span the years 1868 to 1904 and survey many of the artist's most important themes. In this, they reveal information about his biography and travels. The collection's breadth and the ambition of most of the pictures also allow an overview of his stylistic development.

The paintings are constructions of Homer's imagination. Even so, early genre scenes convey specific facts about identifiable sites as well as the era's costumes and activities. The later landscapes display truths gleaned from his concerted observation of Prout's Neck, Maine, and the sometimes dramatic effects there of sea and sky.

Sterling Clark acquired his pictures from 1916 to 1955. This sustained interest—the fact that he bought, sold, and then re-purchased one of the major works and, very late in his life, bought one of the small, elegiac private paintings—reveals his commitment to Homer's art. At one point he proclaimed Homer, along with Renoir and Corot, to be the greatest of nineteenth-century artists; his collection well reflects that high valuation.

Search the collection to view all of Homer's paintings.