Sunday Morning in Virginia

Sunday Morning in Virginia (1877) by Winslow Homer, now in the collection of Cincinnati Art Museum, exploits the dramatic lighting conditions of a specific time of day, a subject that became increasingly central to Impressionist and Tonalist painters' investigation of atmospheric light. Winslow Homer stands as one of America's greatest naturalistic painters, a largely self-taught artist who developed a powerful visual language for depicting the relationship between human beings and the natural world. From his early Civil War illustrations to his late Maine seascapes, he consistently focused on the drama of survival, labor, and elemental forces.

Homer built his watercolors and oils with confident, economical strokes that convey the raw power of sea and weather. His palette in watercolor is bold and direct — deep marine blues, warm ochres, strong greens — applied with remarkable freshness.