Crab Fishing

Artist Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)

Date1883

Mediumwatercolor and opaque watercolor, over graphite, with scraping out, on medium thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper

Dimensionssheet: 14 5/8 x 21 13/16 in. (37.3 x 55.6 cm)

ClassificationsWatercolors

MarkingsWatermark: J WHATMAN (?)

Credit LineBequest of Grenville H. Norcross

Terms

Object number1937.13

Label TextBegun during a 20-month sojourn to Cullercoats, England, from 1881-82, Homer completed Crab Fishing in 1883, shortly after his return to the United States. It is among the most detailed and stylized of his works currently on display. Here, Homer applied layered and sponged washes to convey a moody sky, and brisk strokes of contrasting colors to mimic the dazzling effect of light upon a swelling sea. Perplexing, however, is a reddish “splotch” of watercolor in the midground on the far right. Given the exacting nature of the rest of the composition, Homer curiously draws attention to what may have been a wayward, lifted mark using the targeted gaze of the young woman at the stern of the boat. Perhaps Homer felt the blot serendipitously resembled a jellyfish, seaweed, or a crab.ProvenanceDoll and Richards, Boston, 1883); Miss L. Norcross, 1883; Grenville H. Norcross, Boston, by 1911;

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