As a humble artistic war correspondent for Harper's Magazine, Winslow Homer roamed the front lines of the bloody War Between The States.  His etchings provided a visual picture of the bloodiest conflict ever waged on American soil.

Afterward, his scenes, though not without dramatic elements, were always about some aspect of serenity suitable for meditation.  Homer (1836-1910) was arguably the first  U.S. fine artist of popular appeal and of critical stature who demonstrated that wildlife and sporting scenes were as valid as straight landscape pastorals. He did not over romanticise or create a visual mythology as his peers Bierstadt, Russell, Moran and Remington were doing in the West.  In watercolor, oil or earlier during the height of his work as an engraver, Homer put humans in the picture realistically alongside wild nature.  Click here for a description about Homer's painting Right and Left, above, from Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., senior curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

In this installment of Art Video Of The Week, enjoy this leisurely paced foray through Homer's body of work backed by Walter Piston's Symphony No. 6, Second Movement.