The Gulf Stream
1899; reworked by 1906
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 1/8 x 49 1/8 in. (71.4 x 124.8 cm) Framed: 42 5/16 x 62 11/16 x 5 7/8 in. (107.5 x 159.3 x 15 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1906
Accession Number
06.1234
Tags
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer's *The Gulf Stream* (1899, reworked by 1906) is a powerful oil on canvas measuring 28⅛ × 49⅛ inches, now housed in the Metropolitan of Art's American Wing. This American masterpiece captures a dramatic marine scene: a lone man in a small boat amid turbulent seas, crashing waves, and ominous fish, evoking the perilous currents of the Gulf Stream. Acquired in 1906 through the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection Wolfe Fund, it exemplifies's late-career focus on humanity's fragile confrontation with nature. As a leading figure in American Realism, Homer employed masterful oil techn...
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...