Homer, William Innes 1929-

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HOMER, William Innes 1929-

PERSONAL: Born November 8, 1929, in Merion, PA; son of Austin (an executive) and Evelyn Homer; married Virginia Keller, August 14, 1954 (marriage ended); married Christine Hyer, August 24, 1986. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1951; attended New York University, 1952-53; Harvard University, M.A., 1954, Ph.D., 1961. Hobbies and other interests: Swimming, trapshooting, amateur radio, collecting books, photography.

ADDRESSES: Home—200 Jackson Blvd., Wilmington, DE 19803. Offıce—Department of Art History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19711. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, instructor, 1955-59, lecturer, 1959-61, assistant professor of art history, 1961-64, curator of university portraits and Boudinot Collection, 1956-57; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, associate professor of history of art, 1965-66; University of Delaware, Newark, professor of art history, 1966-84, Rodney Sharp Professor of Art History, 1984-99, chair of department, 1986-93, professor emeritus, 2000—. Member, Ogunquit, ME, Museum of Art Corporation, 1955-58, American Studies Institute of Lincoln University advisory committee, 1967-75, Delaware Art Museum exhibition committee, 1968-73, and Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art regional advisory committee, 1979—; National Endowment for the Humanities panelist, 1970, 1982, 1984, 1989; chair of overseas screening committee of Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Awards, 1970-72; advisor to American art program, Henry Luce Foundation, 1981—. Trustee, Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art, 1994-97, and American Friends of the National Portrait Gallery, London, England, 1994—; member of board of advisors, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, 1995-98 (chairman, 1997-98). Guest director of museum exhibitions.

MEMBER: Royal Society of Arts (fellow), Royal Photographic Society, National Arts Club, College Art Association of America, Cosmos Club, Princeton Club (New York, NY), Phi Phi Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Council of the Humanities fellowship, Princeton University, 1962-63; American Council of Learned Societies fellowship, 1964-65; Guggenheim fellowship, 1972-73; Princeton University visiting fellow, 1972-73; National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1980-81; Francis Alison Faculty Award, University of Delaware, 1980; Distinguished Faculty Lectureship, University of Delaware, 1981; University of Delaware Center for Advanced Study fellowship, 1985-86; Delaware Humanities Forum Research fellowship, 1988-89; Best Academic Book citation, Choice, 1992, for Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art.

WRITINGS:

Seurat and the Science of Painting, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA), 1964, 3rd edition, Hacker Art Books (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Violet Organ) Robert Henri and His Circle, Cornell University Press (Cornell, NY), 1969.

Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde, New York Graphic Society (Boston, MA), 1977.

(Editor and author of introduction) Marsden Hartley, Heart's Gate: Letters between Marsden Hartley and Horace Traubel, 1906-1915, Jargon Society (Highlands, NC), 1982.

Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1983.

(With Lloyd Goodrich) Albert Pinkham Ryder: Painter of Dreams, Abrams (New York, NY), 1989.

Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1992.

The Language of Contemporary Criticism Clarified, Sound View Press (Madison, CT), 1999.

Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, 1902, Viking Studio (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to Encyclopedia of World Art, and to Art Quarterly, Burlington, Connoisseur, Art in America, and other art journals. Member of editorial board, American Art Journal, 1970—, and Winterthur Portfolio, 1978-80.

EDITOR; EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

A Catalogue of the Ceramic Sculpture of Carl Walters, Museum of Art of Ogunquit (Ogunquit, ME), 1958.

(And contributor) Avant-Garde Painting and Sculpture in America, 1910-25, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1975.

(And contributor) Symbolism of Light: The Photographs of Clarence H. White, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1977.

A Pictorial Heritage: The Photographs of Gertrude Käsebier, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1979.

(And contributor) Eakins in Avondale and Thomas Eakins: A Personal Collection, Brandywine River Museum (Chadds Ford, PA), 1980.

(And contributor) Pictorial Photography in Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Academy's Salons, 1898-1901, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA), 1984.

(And contributor) Selections from the Lloyd Goodrich-Albert Pinkham Ryder Archive, University of Delaware Library (Newark, DE), 1989.

(And contributor), Brandywine Valley to the Bay: Art from Private Collections, University Gallery (Newark, DE), 1991.

(And contributor) African-American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection, University Gallery (Newark, DE), 1993.

(And contributor) The Gist of Drawing: Works on Paper by John Sloan, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: William Innes Homer is a historian of art with whose particular interest is nineteenth and twentieth-century painting and photography. He has done extensive work on photographer Alfred Stieglitz and painters Albert Pinkham Ryder and Thomas Eakins. In addition to teaching on the college level, Homer has also mounted art exhibits in a number of museums, principally in the Delaware Valley where he makes his home. Booklist contributor Ray Olson called Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, 1902 "a glorious centennial commemoration and must-have Americana." A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art "knocks the halo off Eakins while capturing the humanity and complexity of his art."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American History Illustrated, May-June, 1993.

ARTnews, November, 1990, Paul H. Fry, review of Albert Pinkham Ryder: Painter of Dreams, p. 103; May, 1995, Eric Brace, "William Innes Homer: Rethinking the Present," p. 84.

Booklist, January 15, 1993, Donna Seaman, review of Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art, p. 870; October 15, 2002, Ray Olson, review of Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, 1902, p. 374.

Modern Photography, November, 1983, Emily Simson, review of Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, p. 182.

New York Times Book Review, May 27, 1990, Mignon Nixon, review of Albert Pinkham Ryder, p. 15; January 24, 1993, Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., review of Thomas Eakins, p. 7.

Publishers Weekly, October 20, 1989, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Albert Pinkham Ryder, p. 45; November 30, 1992, review of Thomas Eakins, p. 40.