The Gulf Stream
1899 Metropolitan Museum of Art
About this artwork
This large oil-on-canvas painting depicts a man adrift in a damaged boat surrounded by sharks in the turbulent waters of the Gulf Stream. It was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1906.
Did you know?
Winslow Homer drew inspiration for this dramatic scene from his extensive travels to the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas. The painting is often interpreted as a meditation on human vulnerability and mortality in the face of nature's indifference, a common theme in Homer's later marine works.
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The Gulf Stream
Winslow Homer, 1899
