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The Gulf Stream

Winslow Homer American
1899; reworked by 1906
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 767
Threatened by sharks and a waterspout, a Black man faces his demise aboard a damaged boat. The painting represents the culmination of Homer’s interest in depicting conflict between humans and nature. Sugarcane, the Caribbean commodity central to the economy of empire, and transatlantic slavery are linked by the titular Gulf Stream current. Homer interwove geopolitical themes into an epic saga that foregrounds human struggle—personified by a stoic survivor—against the relentless power of nature and history.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Gulf Stream
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1899; reworked by 1906
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 1/8 x 49 1/8 in. (71.4 x 124.8 cm)
    Framed: 42 5/16 x 62 11/16 x 5 7/8 in. (107.5 x 159.3 x 15 cm)
  • Credit Line: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1906
  • Object Number: 06.1234
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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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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