Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
1901 Metropolitan Museum of Art
About this artwork
This oil painting depicts a dark, atmospheric view of a coastal fortification at night, featuring a cannon in the foreground illuminated by a distant searchlight. It is a prominent work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of American art.
Did you know?
Winslow Homer painted this work after visiting Cuba in 1901, capturing the tense, watchful atmosphere of the post-Spanish-American War era. The use of a bright, sweeping beam of light cutting through the nocturnal landscape was a modern technological addition to the coastal defense, reflecting Homer's fascination with the interplay of nature and man-made machinery.
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Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
Winslow Homer, 1901
