BPLDC no.: 09_03_000022

Title: Eight Bells

Creator: Winslow Homer, artist (1836-1910)

Date created: 1887

General format: etching

BPL Department: Print Department

Description: Winslow Homer was trained as an apprentice in the Boston lithographic firm of J.H. Bufford. He then moved to New York where he established his reputation as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly. After a trip to England in 1881-1882, Homer settled in Prout’s Neck, Maine. There, between 1884 and 1886, he produced a series of sea paintings, which he then published as etchings. Eight Bells was printed from one of the eight plates Homer etched between 1884 and 1889 and represents the mature phase of his artistic career. The Boston Public Library Print Department has major holdings of prints and drawings by American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.