Program Information

In the spring of 1862, Winslow Homer returned to illustrate the story of the Army of the Potomac - and thus began one of America's most illustrious art careers.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: In the spring of 1862, Winslow Homer returned to illustrate the story of the Army of the Potomac - and thus began one of America's most illustrious art careers.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In April 1862 Union General George McClellan finally began to move the Army of the Potomac. His plan was to march his army up the Virginia Peninsula and capture Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. Anticipating a great decisive battle, leading illustrators such as Alfred and William Waud, Thomas Nast, and Winslow Homer traveled with the army, hoping to record the drama of a major military engagement. McClellan had not changed, however. Nearly always erring on the side of caution, he brought a whole new meaning to the word prudence. Once he overestimated the strength of the Confederate forces facing him and moved very slowly. As McClellan spent a wasted month besieging tiny Yorktown, Winslow Homer got busy. He began to send a stream of brilliant war illustrations back to Harper's Weekly in New York. He did sketches and drawings of camp life, skirmishes, and sharpshooters at work.

After he returned to New York in late May, he created his first oil painting entitled Sharpshooter. Homer made his reputation painting war scenes, twenty major works between 1862 and 1866. But his work was different, unconventional. Instead of attempting to record the actual event, he created an impression, a glimpse of the everyday domestic and emotional life of the average soldier in camp. Homer's work depicted the universal feelings of loneliness and homesickness. Winslow Homer was a dominant force in the realist style of painting. He settled permanently on the coast of Maine until his death in 1910.

The Producer of A Moment in Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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