Homer D. Martin

Homer D. Martin, in spite of early discouragements, came to be recognized as one of the most original artists and best colorists in America. It required great courage, when popular taste was uneducated in art, and friends and patrons were few, to work for high ideals and truth from the best models of the best schools, when they were not accepted as standards by those upon whom he was dependent for a livelihood; and his experience has been that of many another of his profession. He lived to see the triumph of the true artistic ideas he adhered to, through the higher education of the American public, whom travel and familiarity with European masters had enlightened, and then his position was sure. There was strong individuality in his work, and a rich and tender quality of color that has won for him a high place as a true artist. He had a rare artistic temperament, easy going, happy, careless of himself, a boon companion and the delight of all his friends, for he had a rare quality of wit that was equal, if not superior, to that of noted table talkers, whose scintillations are preserved in memoirs, while his effervescence only lives in the memory of those who heard him. He was deservedly popular in the Club, and one of the greatest charms of our social gatherings passed away with him.

Henry E. Howland
1898 Century Association Yearbook