Rum Cay

Artist Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)

Date1898–1899

Mediumwatercolor over graphite with scraping out on thick, moderately textured, off-white wove paper

Dimensionssheet: 38.2 × 54.8 cm (15 1/16 × 21 9/16 in.)

ClassificationsWatercolors

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Terms

Object number1911.17

Label TextHomer returned to the Bahamas in the winter of 1898-99, when he painted this scene of a man chasing a turtle. One way of hunting the turtle, an animal valued for its shell and meat, was to surprise the female on the beach while she laid her eggs. Homer links predator and prey by painting them in echoing poses, by patterning the turtle's shell and the man's torso in like fashion, and by using the same browns and blues on each figure. The artist also weds himself to this struggle between man and nature, drawing the "R" in his name in a long curve that repeats the arc of the turtle's hind flipper and also mirrors the man's back leg.ProvenanceEstate of the artist; (E.L. Knoedler, New York);

On View

Not on view

Collections