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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, William Howe Downes, recounted that the artist was sitting outside his 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 painted wholly in and by the light of the moon, and never again retouched.” The spot of red pigment on the horizon denotes the lighthouse on Wood Island, to the south of Prouts Neck, Maine.

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), Winslow Homer American, Lithograph
Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
Multiple artists/makers
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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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