Yet, from the late 1870s on, Winslow Homer seemed to change in a fundamental way. Some scholars speculate that there was a failed romance that caused his withdrawal from society. In any case ...

American artist Winslow Homer painted A Visit from the Old Mistress in 1876. In it he portrays the tension that existed between white plantation owners and their former slaves following emancipation.

The frugal Winslow Homer was at his most parsimonious with words—especially when asked to reveal his aesthetic ideas or his methods of working. "I think it would probably kill me to have such a ...