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Northeaster

Winslow Homer American
1895; reworked by 1901
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 767
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."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Northeaster
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1895; reworked by 1901
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 34 1/2 x 50 in. (87.6 x 127 cm)
    Framed: 48 13/16 x 64 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. (124 x 164.5 x 15 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of George A. Hearn, 1910
  • Object Number: 10.64.5
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

Audio

Cover Image for 4384. American Art: Northeaster

4384. American Art: Northeaster

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Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover), Winslow Homer American, Lithograph
Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
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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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