The Gulf Stream
Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910)
probably 1899, dated by the artist "1889"
- Medium
- Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor and traces of blotting, over graphite, on moderately thick, moderately textured, ivory wove paper (lower edge trimmed)
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 28.8 × 50.9 cm (11 3/8 × 20 1/16 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Homer’s exploration of life and death in the tropics found ultimate expression in his oil painting The Gulf Stream painted at Prout’s Neck following his return from the Bahamas. A group of four watercolors documents the evolution of this terrifying seascape, which details the plight of a solitary black man, adrift in stormy seas on a broken boat and encircled by a school of aggressive requiem sharks. In early 1885, on his first trip to the Bahamas, Homer had painted Shark Fishing which depicts two fishermen controlling a hooked shark that struggles, mouth open, in the immediate foreground. On this same trip, the artist executed a similar subject, Sharks (The Derelict). In this work, an unmanned wooden boat, broken-masted and taking on water, is under attack by at least three large, circling animals. The fact that the boat is empty leaves the viewer to wonder if the worst has already happened. Homer’s 1898 voyage to the Bahamas must have reminded him of these works, suggesting the idea for his next major painting. Either in Nassau, or more likely after he returned to Prout’s Neck, he developed the theme in two watercolors. One is Study for “The Gulf Stream”, a detailed view of the…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
