Stowing Sail
1903 Metropolitan Museum of Art
About this artwork
This watercolor painting depicts a lone sailor working on the rigging of a boat, rendered with fluid washes and precise detail. It is part of the artist's significant body of maritime work created during his later years in Maine.
Did you know?
Winslow Homer, one of the greatest American painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries, famously retreated to Prout's Neck, Maine, to capture the raw power and subtle nuances of the sea. This watercolor demonstrates his masterful command of the medium, utilizing the white of the paper to highlight the light hitting the sails and the turbulent surface of the water, a technique he honed after turning away from his earlier career as a commercial illustrator.
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Stowing Sail
Winslow Homer, 1903
