<p>Long inspired by the sea, Winslow Homer spent time in 1881 in a fishing community in Tynemouth, England. The experience fundamentally changed his life and work. His paintings thereafter focused almost exclusively on humankind’s age-old contest with nature. In <em>The Herring Net</em>, executed in Prouts Neck, Maine, Homer depicted the heroic efforts of fishermen at their daily work. In a small dory, one figure hauls in glistening herring, while the other, possibly a boy, unloads the catch. Laboring far from the schooners on the horizon, the pair strives to steady the precarious boat as it rides the incoming swells.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1885
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 76.5 × 122.9 cm (30 1/8 × 48 3/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Winslow Homer
Artist
Painting
Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters of 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in American art in general.
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More by Winslow Homer
Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
1902 · Oil on canvas
Early Morning After a Storm at Sea
1900 · oil on canvas
Northeaster
1895 · Oil on canvas
Leaping Trout
1889 · watercolor over graphite
Netting the Fish
1889 · Transparent watercolor, heightened with opaque white watercolor, with rewetting, blotting, and scraping, over graphite, on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Inside the Bar
1883 · Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Winslow Homer
- Year
- 1885
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 76.5 × 122.9 cm (30 1/8 × 48 3/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1885-013691
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified