Coast of Maine

Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)

1893

Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
61 × 76.2 cm (24 × 30 in.)
Culture
United States
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
Credit line
Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

Winslow Homer observed the shoreline in various weather conditions and seasons after moving to live in near isolation in Prouts Neck, Maine, in 1883. Amid the remote and dramatic landscape, he depicted seascapes void of human life, focusing instead on an emotional response to nature. His marine scenes are larger than his earlier works, the size of the canvases emphasize the vastness and power of the sea. Homer alluded to the violence of water through the sharply diagonal shoreline and vigorous brushwork. The flat areas of color that he employed to represent the rugged rocks simultaneously hint at abstraction.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0