Shore and Surf, Nassau
Winslow Homer American
Not on view
On Homer’s second trip to the Bahamas, in the winter of 1898–99, he demonstrated a growing interest in tropical weather, notably storms and hurricanes. As in Palm Tree, Nassau (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10.228.6), the artist here envisions a tempest building on the horizon of a richly textured seascape, accentuating the bright passage of foam-flecked azure surf with darker zones of shore and sky. A red pennant is visible at far left, behind a white coral lighthouse. This specialty hurricane flag replaced the Union Jack in times of inclement weather, alerting passing ships of rough seas. Through this subtle detail, Homer draws attention to the distant steamer’s vulnerability in open water.
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