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Maine Coast

Winslow Homer American
1896
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 770
In 1895, on the eve of his fifty-ninth birthday, Homer wrote to his brother Charles: "The life that I have chosen gives me my full hours of enjoyment for the balance of my life. The sun will not rise, or set, without my notice, and thanks." During his final decades, the artist honed the essential themes of his art, steadily and insistently focusing on nature and mortality. His powers of observation were bound to his sense of impermanence. At Prouts Neck, he channeled his commitment to realism into representations of the rugged coast and churning ocean across the seasons, in varying conditions and at different times of day. In Homer’s depictions of fierce weather in particular, the expressive quality of his brushwork conveys the eternity and majesty of the ocean.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Maine Coast
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1896
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
    Framed: 43 11/16 x 57 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (111 x 146.7 x 14 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of Arthur Hoppock Hearn, 1911
  • Object Number: 11.116.1
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover), Winslow Homer American, Lithograph
Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
Multiple artists/makers
1850–59
Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV)
Winslow Homer
May 22, 1880
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III)
Winslow Homer
D. Appleton & Co.
June 6, 1870
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX)
Winslow Homer
January 1870
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI)
Winslow Homer
September 1868

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