A framed painting by Winslow Homer entitled "Long Branch New Jersey".

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 to September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art. Largely self taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. His career as an illustrator lasted nearly twenty years. He contributed illustrations of Boston life and rural New England life to magazines such as Ballous Pictorial and Harpers Weekly at a time when the market for illustrations was growing rapidly and fads and fashions were changing quickly. Homer never taught in a school or privately, as did Thomas Eakins, but his works strongly influenced succeeding generations of American painters for their direct and energetic interpretation of mans stoic relationship to an often neutral and sometimes harsh wilderness. Artist Robert Henri called Homers work an integrity of nature.