Born and raised in rural Cambridge, MA, Winslow Homer was the son of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Maria Benson Homer. Homer’s talent for painting manifested at a young age, and at twenty-one he opened his first studio in Boston (Johns). Largely self-taught, he started to publish illustrations in Harper’s Weekly in 1858. One year later, he moved to New York City and opened another studio, taking night classes at the National Academy of Design. It is around this time that Homer most likely became involved with the Pfaffians.
