Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
1902
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
30 1/2 x 50 1/2 in. (77.5 x 128.3 cm) Framed: 43 7/8 x 63 5/8 x 6 in. (111.4 x 161.6 x 15.2 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of George A. Hearn, 1906
Accession Number
06.1282
Tags
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer’s *Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba* (1902) captures a tense nocturnal scene at the Cuban port that had been central to the Spanish-American War just four years earlier. Painted in oil on canvas, the work uses dramatic contrasts of artificial light and deep shadow to show powerful search beams sweeping across the water toward unseen threats, while cannons stand ready on the shore beneath a luminous moon. The large scale—roughly 30 by 50 inches—invites viewers to feel the weight of vigilance and military preparedness. Homer, already celebrated for his marine subje...
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...