Winslow Homer Studio Tours

Tour Dates are available May 1 through November 9, 2025

Get Tick­ets!

Experience the New Winslow Homer Studio Tour!

All tours start at the PMA. The stu­dio is not acces­si­ble to pri­vate vehicles

Updat­ed with new ameni­ties, inter­ac­tive activ­i­ties, and immer­sive expe­ri­ences, audi­ences who tour the Winslow Homer Stu­dio will con­nect more deeply with the stun­ning land­scape of Prouts Neck and Homer’s artis­tic practice.

Play
  • Gallery vis­it: vis­it Homer’s 1894 paint­ing Weath­er­beaten, which was cre­at­ed at Prouts Neck, before board­ing the Homer van
  • Field Guide: use for self-explo­ration, ref­er­ence, and activ­i­ties while at the Studio
  • Improved ameni­ties: includes more seat­ing, walk­ing sticks, umbrel­las, and binoc­u­lars to use dur­ing your tour
  • New repro­duc­tions and instal­la­tions : learn more about the artis­tic process­es that Homer prac­ticed dur­ing his years at Prouts Neck and what inspired him to cre­ate his oil paint­ings, prints, water­col­ors, and drawings
  • Cus­tom sound­scape: have a more immer­sive sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence of how Homer lived and worked  in Maine through the sounds in his Studio
  • Let­ter writ­ing activ­i­ty: read or lis­ten to audio record­ings of a selec­tion of let­ters writ­ten to/from Homer
  • Updat­ed stu­dio light­ing: see Homer’s objects and hand­writ­ing on walls bet­ter illu­mi­nat­ed  in the space
  • More self-explo­ration time: have more time to explore the Cliff Walk and Studio

Not a mem­ber? Mem­bers enjoy a 35% dis­count on Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tours tick­ets, free admis­sion to the PMA and spe­cial exhi­bi­tions, and much more. Join today!

Tour FAQs

All reser­va­tions to vis­it the Winslow Homer Stu­dio must be booked through the PMA. The stu­dio is not acces­si­ble out­side a tour. All tours of the Stu­dio begin at the PMA, and each tour has a capac­i­ty of 12 people.

The PMA is locat­ed at 7 Con­gress Square in Port­land, Maine, at the inter­sec­tion of High, Con­gress, and Free streets. The Winslow Homer Stu­dio is locat­ed on Prouts Neck, and is not acces­si­ble to the public.

Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tours include trans­porta­tion to and from the Stu­dio and is a 2.5 hour guid­ed expe­ri­ence. Tick­ets are non-trans­fer­able and non-refund­able and tours will run regard­less of the weath­er. Tick­ets also include com­pli­men­ta­ry admis­sion to the PMA before and after your trip to the studio.

$70 | $40 for PMA mem­bers | $25 for students

Group tours of 10 peo­ple or more are avail­able at a rate of $60 per person.

Off­sea­son prices:

$60 | $30 for PMA mem­bers | $50 per-per­son for groups

Yes! Tours for those with lim­it­ed mobil­i­ty are avail­able, though access to some parts of the stu­dio may be dif­fi­cult. We encour­age guests to call our vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence team pri­or to book­ing for more infor­ma­tion at (207) 775‑6148.

Yes! Tours of the Winslow Homer Stu­dio are great for fam­i­lies with teens and old­er chil­dren, how­ev­er not intend­ed for younger audi­ences. As such, chil­dren must be at least 8 years of age to attend a tour.

Yes! Please con­tact our Group Sales Man­ag­er Greg Norstrom at gnorstrom@portlandmuseum.org for avail­abil­i­ty and to book your tour.

Please have pay­ment ready at the time of book­ing a tour. Refunds and resched­ul­ing of pri­vate tours are not pos­si­ble with­in 4 weeks of your tour date.

Absolute­ly! We offer a robust Busi­ness Part­ner pro­gram to com­pa­nies, orga­ni­za­tions, and insti­tu­tions of all sizes. Includ­ed in the ben­e­fits are dis­count­ed rates of just $40 per per­son for group tours—over 30% off! Please call us at 207–775-6148 for more infor­ma­tion about cor­po­rate groups.

Because the Winslow Homer Stu­dio oper­ates in a pri­vate, res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood, advance tour reser­va­tions are required to visit.

We are in the process of devel­op­ing an immer­sive dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence for the Winslow Homer Stu­dio and sur­round­ing property.

Want to learn more? Join our mail­ing lists to be the first to know when the Stu­dio goes live!

About the Winslow Homer Studio

The Winslow Homer Stu­dio is a mem­ber of His­toric Artists’ Homes and Stu­dios, a pro­gram of the Nation­al Trust for His­toric Preservation.

In 2006, the PMA pur­chased the prop­er­ty and embarked on a six-year ren­o­va­tion project restor­ing the build­ing to how it appeared dur­ing Homer’s life and, in 2012, opened its doors to the pub­lic for the first time.

Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tours put you unique­ly in touch with Maine’s artis­tic her­itage, allow­ing you to walk the floors and bal­conies where Homer once walked, and to be inspired by the place that inspired one of America’s great­est painters. With its com­bi­na­tion of cul­tur­al res­o­nance, his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, and nat­ur­al beau­ty, Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tours offer a sin­gu­lar expe­ri­ence that you will remem­ber for years to come and want to share with others.

Take a Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tour and dis­cov­er why this loca­tion is so cru­cial to our under­stand­ing of Winslow Homer, Amer­i­can art, and indeed, Maine.

Member Historic Artists' Homes & Studios Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
About Winslow Homer

Wide­ly regard­ed as one of the great­est Amer­i­can artists of the 19th cen­tu­ry, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) also has deep and deeply influ­en­tial ties to Maine and the Port­land Muse­um of Art. Indeed, the PMA is the “home” of Homer in sev­er­al impor­tant regards: the muse­um has deep hold­ings of his works span­ning his entire career and it oper­ates the Winslow Homer Stu­dio, a land­mark build­ing perched on the rocky coast of Maine in which the artist resided from 1884 until his death.

Historic photograph of a Winslow Homer holding a palette, standing by a large seascape painting.

Born in Boston, Homer began his artis­tic career in the late 1850s with an appren­tice­ship in a Boston lith­o­g­ra­phy shop and then as a free­lance illus­tra­tor work­ing in New York City for pop­u­lar mag­a­zines, such as Harper’s Week­ly . He quick­ly came to nation­al atten­tion for close­ly observed and per­cep­tive images of mod­ern Amer­i­can life, par­tic­u­lar­ly his Civ­il War sub­jects that explore the expe­ri­ences of rank-and-file sol­diers in the Union army and the broad­er social impact of the sec­tion­al conflict. 

While con­tin­u­ing to pro­duce com­mer­cial illus­tra­tions until 1875, Homer increas­ing­ly con­cen­trat­ed his efforts on oil paint­ing and water­col­or. His paint­ings of con­tem­po­rary life—including images of the Civ­il War, rur­al chil­dren, fash­ion­able women, and mod­ern leisure pur­suits (such as cro­quet, hik­ing, and hunting)—as well as his loose­ly paint­ed real­is­tic style earned Homer crit­i­cal acclaim as one of the nation’s most pro­gres­sive and orig­i­nal artists.

In 1884, short­ly after return­ing from an 18-month sojourn in the Eng­lish fish­ing vil­lage of Culler­coats, where he paint­ed the dai­ly hard­ships of local fish­er­men and women, Homer moved from New York City to Prouts Neck, a small penin­su­la that juts out into the Atlantic about 12 miles south of Port­land. Inspired by the raw beau­ty of the Maine coast, Homer’s art changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly in theme and mood. He cre­at­ed mon­u­men­tal marine nar­ra­tives and seascapes that inves­ti­gate humankind’s life-and-death strug­gles against the sea and the ele­men­tal pow­er of nature. Paint­ed with vig­or­ous brush­work and close­ly observed real­ism, these late paint­ings cap­ture the titan­ic force of waves crash­ing against the rocky shore in vary­ing sea­sons and cli­mac­tic con­di­tions. Homer’s Maine pic­tures influ­enced gen­er­a­tions of artists and trans­formed marine paint­ing in the Unit­ed States. High­ly acclaimed dur­ing his life­time, they con­tin­ue to be con­sid­ered among the great­est mas­ter­pieces of Amer­i­can art.

The Winslow Homer Studio Tours program is supported by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and the KHR McNeely Family Foundation.
KHR McNeely Family Foundation
Winslow Homer Studio Reinstallation and Tours

This rein­stal­la­tion is made pos­si­ble by the Berg­er Col­lec­tion Edu­ca­tion­al Trust, the Mor­ton-Kel­ly Char­i­ta­ble Trust, and the Pinker­ton Foun­da­tion in hon­or of George J. Gille­spie III.

Indi­vid­ual Support:

Jan­ice G. Hunt and Louis Matis and Antho­ny Calamusa

Instal­la­tion materials:

Instal­la­tion mate­ri­als are sup­port­ed in part by Lila Hunt Davies and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.

L.L Bean

The offi­cial out­fit­ter of the Winslow Homer Stu­dio Tour Experience

Media sup­port gen­er­ous­ly pro­vid­ed by our cre­ative video part­ner, p3.