Winslow Homer: In Their Own Words

Quotes on art and life

"From the time I took my nose off that lithographic stone, I have had no master, and never shall have any."

Winslow Homer, recalling his apprenticeship to the Boston lithographer J. H. Bufford (quoted in Elizabeth Johns, Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation, 2002)

"I regret very much that I have painted a picture that requires any description."

Winslow Homer, replying to a request to explain the story of The Gulf Stream (quoted in Natalie Spassky's 1982 Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin and Cikovsky and Kelly, Winslow Homer, 1995)

"I have crossed the Gulf Stream ten times & I should know something about it."

Winslow Homer, in the same reply concerning The Gulf Stream

"The best picture of the sea that I have painted."

Winslow Homer, describing Early Morning After a Storm at Sea (as recorded by the Cleveland Museum of Art)

"Leave rocks for your old age - they're easy."