Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Diamond Shoal
Winslow Homer American
Not on view
Homer’s last known watercolor is a dynamic exploration of one of his most enduring subjects—the perils and power of the sea. It depicts a boat near the Diamond Shoal lightship, a vessel equipped with beacons to aid navigation in dangerous waters off the coast of North Carolina, at the junction of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. Feared by sailors as the "graveyard of the Atlantic," it was an apt subject for Homer given his fascination with oceanic danger; he was likely familiar with the area owing to his winter trips from Maine to Florida. Urgently confronting the treacherous gale, the sailboat seems to head straight for the artist-viewer, creating a suspenseful scene of conflict that merges a dramatic narrative with breathtaking artistry.
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