A Basket of Clams
1873
Medium
Watercolor on wove paper
Dimensions
11 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. (29.2 x 24.8 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Arthur G. Altschul, 1995
Accession Number
1995.378
Tags
About this artwork
This watercolor depicts two boys carrying a basket of clams across a beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts, created by Winslow Homer in 1873. The composition shows the smaller boy eyeing a dead shark ahead while his older companion looks back at a sailboat behind them, with these details casting subtle shadows on an otherwise bright scene, gesturing toward threats the youth of this fishing village might someday face at sea. The work represents Homer's first watercolors, created in June 1873 when he...
About the Artist
Winslow Homer · 1836–1910
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was one of America's greatest painters and a preeminent figure in 19th-century American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career as a commercial illustrator and Civil War correspondent for Harper's Weekly before becoming renowned for his powerful marine subjects and landscape paintings. His mastery of both oil and watercolor, combined with his uncompromising reali...