荷马(1836～1910年)
Homer, Winslow
美国画家。曾在波士顿一家石版商行作画工，後来迁居纽约，成为自由插图画家。1860年在国家设计院举办画展，1865年被遴选为国家设计院委员。1866年旅居法国一年，深受法国自然主义和日本版画的吸引，但对其明亮和洋溢着幸福的作品风格（如《拉动》〔1872〕）甚少影响。他成为水彩画大师，油画作品也十分纯熟，焦点逐渐摆在孤僻的人物上。1881～1882年荷马到英国泰恩茅斯的滨北海渔村居住，这里的沿海环境、大海和性格坚毅的人们是其丰富想像力的主要来源。1883年回到美国，定居於缅因州普罗茨耐克，作品主题变成大海，以及表现人与大自然永无止尽的搏斗情形。晚年仍维持旺盛的创作力，但几乎过着完全与世隔绝的生活。虽然生前已是美国公认的杰出画家，但在死後才受到极大的推崇。
English version：
1836～1910年
Homer, Winslow
U.S. painter. Born in Boston, he served an apprenticeship with a Boston lithographer, then became a freelance illustrator in New York. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1860 and was elected a member in 1865. During a stay in France in 1866, he was attracted to French naturalism and Japanese prints, but they had little effect on his generally bright and happy work, including Snap the Whip (1872). He became a master of watercolor and his oil paintings matured, focusing increasingly on solitary, withdrawn figures. He spent 1881-82 in the English village of Tynemouth, on the North Sea, where the coastal atmosphere, the sea, and the stoic people are the subjects of some of his most powerful images. In 1883 he moved permanently to Prout's Neck, Me., and his dominant theme became the sea and the endless struggle against an uncaring nature. In his later years he continued to paint vigorously and in near-total isolation. Though he was recognized in his lifetime as a leading U.S. painter, appreciation of his enormous achievement came only after his death.