Art Institute of Chicago

The Return, Tynemouth (recto) Study (verso)

Winslow Homer

Date

1881

Medium

Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor, rewetting, blotting, and scraping, heightened with gum glaze, over graphite, on moderately thick, moderately-textured, ivory wove paper (left and lower edges trimmed)

Culture

United States

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

During Homer's sojourn in England from 1881 to 1882, he rented a studio on a cliff overlooking Cullercoats Harbor, where he observed the comings and goings of fishing boats. The Return, Tynemouth depicts two fishermen who have arrived on shore in early morning. Because this watercolor was painted with light-fast pigments, it retains the pale, orange-pink washes that have faded from many of the extant watercolors he painted with fugitive red pigments ; for this reason, it offers a more complete idea of his developing powers in decorative color. Homer's study of the British Library's drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael during this 1881-82 trip to England may have improved his skill for rendering figures in motion, which are emphasized here by the artist's graphite underdrawing.

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