Grand Discharge, Lake St. John
Artist
Winslow Homer
(American, 1836–1910)
Dateabout 1897
Mediumwatercolor over graphite on moderately thick, smooth off-white wove paper
Dimensions35.6 x 55.6 cm (14 x 21 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsWatercolors
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1911.18
DescriptionAM/3/Homer #2 Inscribed in pen and black ink, l.r., "Winslow Homer/By C.S. Homer Executor." Inscribed in graphite on verso, "25828/Gr. Discharge/Lake St John."; in ctr., "C23603."Label TextWinslow Homer made four trips to Quebec between 1893 and 1902. Frustrated by the destruction of forest and game in the Adirondacks, he and other sportsmen turned to the relatively untouched rivers and lakes near Quebec City. The Saguenay River, dubbed the "River of Death" became a favorite place to fish and paint for Homer. In this watercolor Homer captures the swirling force that gave the river its nickname. Reporting on the new fad of fishing for the salmon-like ouananiche, a writer for Harper's Weekly described the site as "that most ideal and picturesque of fishing-grounds, where the surplus waters...are poured out of Lake St. John over a broad, rocky, rugged, and rapid descent nearly forty miles in length..., into a deep, dark chasm adown which rolls the dismal Saguenay to meet the St. Lawrence on its way to the sea." ProvenanceEstate of the artist; (E.L. Knoedler, New York);
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