The Milwaukee Art Museum recently opened a new exhibit, “Coming Away: Winslow Homer and England.” The extraordinary show of some 50 works by Homer and his contemporaries adds to the pantheon of LGBTQ artists (or those presumed to be) represented in the museum’s collection and past special exhibits. Among the regulars usually on view are Kehinde Wiley, lesbian cross-dresser Rosa Bonheur, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andy Warhol, Marsden Hartley, reclusive lesbian Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, impressionist Gustave Caillebotte and others. MAM’s special exhibits have not shied away from gay artists either. In the past decade, major shows have been dedicated to Francis Bacon, Gilbert and George, Andy Warhol and Thomas Hart Benton. Others have included gay artists like German expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau.
In the case of Winslow Homer, the academic debate regarding his affinities goes on. One has to remember that, until relatively recently, being out not only risked career and reputation, but could also have meant imprisonment, castration or execution. Born in 1836, Homer lived until 1910. This wasn’t the best era to be out and about—just ask Oscar Wilde.
Nevertheless, evidence abounds that Homer could well have been gay. He never married, and although some academics play the “married to his art” card to explain his confirmed bachelorhood, he did have time for close male relationships. One, an apparent Paris fling of two years with fellow artist Albert Kelsey, is documented by a photo of the pair. Some say it emulates a typical marriage portrait. Its reverse is inscribed “Damon and Pythias,” not only a reference to mythological Greek lovers but also a popular period code for a gay couple.
There’s also his 25-year relationship with Lewis Wright, his servant, with whom he lived until his death. Their domestic arrangement was something of the talk of the town in rural Prout’s Neck, Maine. However, that may also have had something to do with Wright being African American.
Like French impressionist Caillebotte, Homer’s early subject matter was male-centric which was somewhat unusual for the time. He also employed boys to model as women for his female subjects. The works on view in the MAM exhibition are largely from Homer’s time in an English fishing village from May 1881 to November 1882. Many depict women at toil. But one piece is often cited for its homoerotic suggestion. Summer Night features a female couple on a seafront boardwalk. Highlighted by radiant moonlight, they dance cheek to cheek. The woman facing the viewer has her eyes closed as if lost in a deeply romantic moment. One might say she’s imagining dancing with her husband who’s away at sea—or maybe she loves the one she’s with.
Homer may have ended the debate himself in 1908. Regarding his love life, he famously told a biographer, “I think it would probably kill me to have such a thing appear—and as the most interesting part of my life is of no concern to the public, I must decline to give you any particulars of it.” Enough said.
