Northeaster

Winslow Homer

1895; reworked by 1901 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

Later in life, Homer increasingly edited his paintings, clarifying his compositions and their meanings. In 1895, when he first exhibited this epic scene of a winter storm at Prouts Neck, it included two figures crouching on the rocks in the lower left corner. Between 1896 and 1900, the artist eliminated the human presence and intensified the spray from the crashing waves. When the refined painting was exhibited at the Union League Club in New York in 1901, the critic for the New-York Tribune appreciated the new emphasis on pure nature and admired the painting as a representation of "three fundamental facts, the rugged strength of the rocks, the weighty, majestic movement of the sea and the large atmosphere of great natural spaces unmarked by the presence of puny man."

Artist

Winslow Homer

Date

1895; reworked by 1901

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of George A. Hearn, 1910