Art Institute of Chicago

Prout's Neck, Breaking Wave

Winslow HomerLinkedCulture matchlcp-bcddaaacf48f

Date: 1887
Medium: Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor, rewetting, blotting and scraping, over resist and traces of graphite, on medium weight, moderately textured, ivory wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper
Culture: United States
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 16818

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Philip Beam has identified the site for Prout’s Neck, Breaking Wave as “the shoreline a little above water’s edge in the vicinity of Cannon Rock, looking toward High Cliff,” adding that Homer “fished from this point almost daily during the summer and fall and must have seen such waves "a thousand times" (Beam 1966, n.p.). Homer’s familiarity with the site is born out by the techniques that he used to capture the relentless churning movement of the massive wave. Although he used very little graphite in this work, he mapped out the frothy whites of the wave by making staccato marks with resist , probably using chalk for this purpose. Homer used almost every trick he knew to achieve the varied textures of water, shore, and sky, including layering, blotting, rewetting, and scraping. Although carefully planned and carried out, the final effect is vigorous and immediate.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Provenance: The artist to his brother, Charles S. Homer, Jr. (1834–1917), New York, by 1910 [according to correspondence from Abigail Booth Gerdts to the Art Institute, February 10, 2007]. Charles W. Gould (1849–1931), New York, by 1915 [Brooklyn exh. cat. 1915]. Sold by Knoedler and Company, New York, to Martin A. Ryerson (1856–1932), Chicago, November 11, 1915 [invoice]; given to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Object type: AAT300033973

Part of LinkedCulture topics

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