Evening on the Thames

Artist: Homer Dodge Martin

Title: Evening of the Thames
Media: Oil on Canvas

 Dimensions: 18 1/4 x 30 1/8"

Date: 1876

 

Homer Martin was born October 28, 1836 in Albany, New York. He is the fourth and youngest son in his family. Just like many others, his work was closely assigned with the Hudson River School.

During the 1860s he spent the summers in the Adirondacks, Catskills and White Mountains where he painted landscapes. He was known for his land scape paintings. On June 25, 1861 he married Elizabeth Gilbert Davis. Homer was elected as associate of the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1868. From 1882 to 1886, he lived in France, where he spent most of his time in Normandy, including stays at the Etaples art colony. In 1893 he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where he created one of his best known works "Adirondack Scenery." You can find Homer's work in Addison Gallery of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I chose this work because I love the evening setting. The dim colors in the sky remind me of the sun setting on a warm summer night and it's very comforting. The few colors used remind me of the night time beginning. The faint water also seems to be fading away and a cool summer night is about to start. The building on the left is already begun to fade away into the evening. Warm summer nights is what this painting reminds me of and it goes so well with my theme. Connecting it to other works where there was summer rain, warm winters, spring popping flowers up, autumn beginning, this reflects summer evening and is a perfect tie to my blog.