From Cambridge to Cullercoats and Back Again: Winslow Homer's 'Waiting for the Boats'

On June 6, 2023, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site celebrated the donation of Winslow Homer’s 1882 watercolor "Waiting for the Boats" to the National Park Service. The program featured a lecture by Sylvia Yount, the Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, placing "Waiting for the Boats" in the context of Homer’s oeuvre.

The lecture was hosted at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy headquarters, next door to the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site on Brattle Street.

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An enjoyable talk from Sylvia Yount. I appreciate the constraints of only having one hour to give an overview of the life of Homer, but I feel that more reference to the great work of William Cross's book (2022) 'American Passage' on Homer may have filled out some of the blanks. Homer has long been of interest here in Cullercoats, and books have been produced over the years.
Tony Harrisons 'Winslow Homer in England' (2004 edition) and Laura Newton's 'Cullercoats A north east colony of artists' (2003) are worthy of reading. In 1988 the Northern Cenrre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland UK put on the largest Homer exhibition ever and it ran from September to November that year. I was there. This is a demonstration of the lasting and growing following of Homer's work and how it meshes with our local history. Winslow Homer continues to attract new followers, and the gentleman mentioned at 44.00 mins is just one of them ( he borrowed a copy of Tony Harrisons 'Winslow Homer in England' book from a friend to show to the