The Gulf Stream, 1899
Winslow Homer
Oil on canvas · 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
A lone sailor drifts in shark-circled seas, rescue only a smudge on the horizon.
A lone Black sailor lies on the deck of a dismasted boat, circled by sharks as a waterspout looms — yet a distant ship offers hope. Homer's tense, powerful late seascape turns a survival drama into a meditation on danger, endurance and fate.
What you're looking at
Homer changed it after nobody would buy it. The version you are looking at was reworked in 1906, seven years after he first showed it, and the ship on the horizon and the waterspout were strengthened then — the rescue was added to a picture that had not offered one. When a dealer asked him to explain the story, he replied that the man would be saved and told them to stop worrying about it.
On a Frame TV
About 1.62:1, so the clean crop trims the ends of a composition that already sits low and wide. Strong blues with a hot sky; high contrast and easy to read from across a room.
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More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Winslow Homer.
