The Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream
Winslow Homer · 1899
01
1899. One man. One small boat.
No mast. No rudder.
Homer built it from his Bahamas sketches.
02
Below the hull, sharks.
One rolls with its jaws open.
Red streaks in the water around them.
03
He lies on the deck. Shirtless.
Visitors to the dealer's gallery asked: does he live?
Homer wrote back. He'll be rescued.
Home to his friends. Happy ever after.
04
Far right, a waterspout.
Sharks below. Weather behind.
05
Far left, on the horizon. A ship.
He's looking the other way.
It wasn't in the painting he first showed.
Homer painted in the rescue. And made the waterspout bigger.
The whole sea.
Sharks, spout, ship.
“I have crossed the Gulf Stream ten times & I should know something about it.”
1906
The Met buys The Gulf Stream.
By then the ship is on the horizon.
Homer is 70.
He dies four years later, at Prouts Neck, Maine.
Winslow Homer
American · Realism · 1836 to 1910
Sources · 6