A dry but informative art historical biography of this American realist painter. Born in Boston, reared and public schooled in Cambridge, Homer apprenticed as a lithographer at 18 and after three years, never worked for anyone else again or had any formal art training. Usually identified with the Hudson School and other naturalist genre painters, he moved from lithography to woodcuts to etching, oils and watercolors, focusing on nature as he saw it. Never marrying, he moved to Prouts Neck, Maine where he lived from 1883-1910, traveling to the Adirondacks, Quebec, the Bahamas, and Florida for additional painting sites.  I read this book in conjunction with a visit to Homer’s studio in Prouts Neck and the Portland Art Museum.