SAN DIEGO.- The San Diego Museum of Art opened the exhibit Winslow Homer—American Illustrator through September 3, 2006. This summer, SDMA is presenting for the very first time its collection of 55 wood engravings by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), one of America's most preeminent artists of the last half of the 19th century.

All of the wood engravings presented in the exhibition were gifts made to SDMA in 2001 through the bequest of Myra Gentner. This representative survey spans Homer's career, beginning with Husking the Corn in New England, and concludes with Camping Out in the Adirondack Mountains, one of his final illustrations.

SDMA's collection includes some of Homer's most enduring images, including The Army of the Potomac—A Sharpshooter on Picket Duty (1862), Homeward Bound (1867), The Summit of Mount Washington (1869), and Snap-the-Whip (1873). The engravings on display represent many of the finest works Homer produced in the print medium. Over the years he created many lasting images that encapsulated American life at the end of the 19th century.