Art Institute of Chicago

The Herring Net

Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)

Date

1885

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

Prouts Neck

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Long inspired by the sea, Winslow Homer spent time in 1881 in a fishing community in Tynemouth, England. The experience fundamentally changed his life and work. His paintings thereafter focused almost exclusively on humankind’s age-old contest with nature. In The Herring Net , executed in Prouts Neck, Maine, Homer depicted the heroic efforts of fishermen at their daily work. In a small dory, one figure hauls in glistening herring, while the other, possibly a boy, unloads the catch. Laboring far from the schooners on the horizon, the pair strives to steady the precarious boat as it rides the incoming swells.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.