"Weatherbeaten," Winslow Homer

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Winslow Homer (United States, 1836–1910), Weatherbeaten, 1894, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 48 3/8 inches. Bequest of Charles Shipman Payson, 1988.55.1. Image courtesy of Luc Demers

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Winslow Homer painted this scene of the ocean late in his career, based on a view from the artist’s home and studio in nearby Prouts Neck, Maine. By 1894, the well-known painter had moved increasingly away from genre scenes and toward paintings that captured the powerful forces of the natural world. Weatherbeaten depicts a wave crashing on rocks and emitting a delicate spray that seems to diffuse into the atmosphere. In the foreground, roiling surf sweeps along the rocky shoreline. Unlike much of his earlier work, Homer’s scene excludes figures entirely. Instead, the painter placed the viewer directly on the rocks to encounter the booming ocean and to contemplate its looming power.