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Moonlight, Wood Island Light

Winslow Homer American
1894
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 770
Homer’s first biographer recounted an anecdote about this painting: the artist was sitting outside his seaside studio one summer evening in 1894, when he exclaimed, "‘I’ve got an idea!’ . . . He almost ran into the studio, seized his painting outfit, emerged from the house, and clambered down over the rocks towards the shore." This picture "was the result of that impulse and four or five hours’ work." It was this type of unmediated approach to painting that endeared Homer to a generation of artists and critics at the turn of the twentieth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Moonlight, Wood Island Light
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1894
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 3/4 x 40 1/4 in. (78.1 x 102.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of Arthur Hoppock Hearn, 1911
  • Object Number: 11.116.2
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
1850–59
Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV)
After Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
May 22, 1880
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III)
Formerly attributed to Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
June 6, 1870
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX)
After Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
January 1870
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI)
After Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
September 1868

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