SACO – To the mark the 100th anniversary of Winslow Homer’s death, the Saco Museum on Saturday opens an exhibition of rarely seen examples of Homer’s skills as a graphic artist.

“In A Place By Himself: The Graphic World of Winslow Homer” offers an overview of Homer’s career as a graphic artist, beginning with his early work as a lithographer’s apprentice in Boston to his late-in-life etching completed at his studio on Prouts Neck in nearby Scarborough.

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Homer’s “The Clanking Shuttle,” an 1871 wood engraving from the Saco Museum’s “In a Place By Himself,” opening Saturday. Courtesy Saco Museum

These days, Homer is known as one of America’s greatest painters. Because he used Maine as a subject for many of his most important works, he is beloved in Maine. The Saco exhibition reminds us that Homer began his visual career in illustration and as a graphic artist, working first for John H. Bufford in Boston, and later as a Civil War correspondent for Harper’s Weekly.

The exhibition includes book illustrations, sheet music and examples of Homer’s illustrations for magazines. Material for the exhibitions comes from the Dyer Library and Saco Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the University of Maine Museum of Art and private collections.

A highlight of the show is the inclusion of a series of etchings from his Scarborough studio, including “Eight Bells,” “The Life Line” and “The Perils of Sea,” all from the late 1880s.