Few of Homer’s watercolors rival this one for its effects of simmering sunlight and steamy atmosphere, achieved through the speed of application of wet on wet washes, the broad and dexterous exploitation of the white paper reserve, and the judicious sponging of wet pigment, especially in the shadows, reflecting light off the water. This picture is also exceptional for the number and visibility of its pencil marks, not only to indicate some of the boats’ rigging (and betraying the pentimento of a sloop in the background that the artist edited out) but also to enliven the rustle of the sailcloth lifted by a phantom breeze. By contrast, Homer, in masterly fashion, merely daubed in the figures freehand, sacrificing nothing of their form and weight; they even seem to speak.

• Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

  Inscription: [at lower left in watercolor]: Homer 1903; [at lower right in watercolor]: WH Dec [illegible]

• Provenance

  Minic Custom Woodwork, New York, until 1983

• Timeline of Art History (2000–present)
  Thematic Essays

  Nineteenth–Century American Drawings

  Winslow Homer (1836–1910)

  Timelines

  The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present
• MetPublications
  American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1835 (2002)

  "American Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4 (Spring, 1980) (1980)

  A Walk Through The American Wing (2002)

  "Winslow Homer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 39, no. 4 (Spring, 1982) (1982)