One of the most influential American painters of the 19th century, Winslow Homer executed the majority of his works in the United States and largely shunned such revolutionary European artistic movements as impressionism. His style was rooted in traditional American realism. Homer's first significant oil paintings date from a Harper's Weekly assignment as a pictorial reporter of the Civil War. Two trips to France apparently had little effect on his evolving style. For several years he concentrated on typically American social and rural scenes. Humans are reduced to insignificant roles or are omitted entirely from Homer's later works. These stark, almost surreal, depictions of nature's fury puzzled admirers of his earlier works. By the time of his death, he was recognized as a master.