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Lot Essay
In the spring of 1881, Winslow Homer made his second visit abroad, spending two seasons in Tynemouth, England, a fishing village on the North Sea. It was during this time that the artist focused on drawings and watercolors capturing the surrounding sea and its inhabitants whose lives depended on the ominous waters. Lloyd Goodrich writes that Homer's "scenes were no longer sunlit, the sky no longer clear but a moving spectacle of clouds, the sea no longer the quiet water of Gloucester harbor but a threatening or raging element...there was more envelopment by atmosphere; his color, while often dark, added a wide variety of grays, and a new depth and body; his technical skill increased; and his watercolors were filled with movement of wind and wave and cloud." (Winslow Homer, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1973, p. 35)
Upon his return to New York in 1883, Homer quickly left the city and settled permanently in Prout's Neck, Maine. The dramatic, rocky coast proved to be a significant presence in his paintings and a natural continuance from his work in Tynemouth. Mackerel Fishing, executed in 1884, demonstrates Homer's strongly rendered drawing style, while at the same time, captures the artist's reverence for life on and the atmosphere of the menacing ocean. In the present work, as if taken from the perspective of a deck of a nearby ship, the viewer looks on as three figures toil against the wind and surf ruggedly battling the elements to sustain their livelihood.
The drawings that Homer created during this period were conceived as individual works of art that although contributed thematically to his large scale paintings, were independent in treatment and composition. Homer's care for each drawing is evident by his specific attention to his medium and his style of rendering each scene. "The texture or 'tooth' of a sheet played a fundamental role in Homer's use of dry media for works executed that summer...This is particularly evident in Mackerel Fishing...Homer selected a large sheet of tan laid paper called papier vergé...The delicate ridges and furrows created by the laid and chain lines either catch the particles of charcoal and chalk or allow minute spaces free of media to show through the overall tone of the sheet--an effect similar to the watercolor technique known as 'holidays' that Homer used frequently. The drawing's physical characteristics--the texture of the sheet and the unusually velvety media--demonstrate the artist's preoccupation with optical effects, such as the suggestion of color, achieved by subtle modulations between media and support." (P.R. Provost, Winslow Homer's Drawings in "Black-and-White," c. 1875-1885, dissertation, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994, pp. 262-63)
Upon his return to New York in 1883, Homer quickly left the city and settled permanently in Prout's Neck, Maine. The dramatic, rocky coast proved to be a significant presence in his paintings and a natural continuance from his work in Tynemouth. Mackerel Fishing, executed in 1884, demonstrates Homer's strongly rendered drawing style, while at the same time, captures the artist's reverence for life on and the atmosphere of the menacing ocean. In the present work, as if taken from the perspective of a deck of a nearby ship, the viewer looks on as three figures toil against the wind and surf ruggedly battling the elements to sustain their livelihood.
The drawings that Homer created during this period were conceived as individual works of art that although contributed thematically to his large scale paintings, were independent in treatment and composition. Homer's care for each drawing is evident by his specific attention to his medium and his style of rendering each scene. "The texture or 'tooth' of a sheet played a fundamental role in Homer's use of dry media for works executed that summer...This is particularly evident in Mackerel Fishing...Homer selected a large sheet of tan laid paper called papier vergé...The delicate ridges and furrows created by the laid and chain lines either catch the particles of charcoal and chalk or allow minute spaces free of media to show through the overall tone of the sheet--an effect similar to the watercolor technique known as 'holidays' that Homer used frequently. The drawing's physical characteristics--the texture of the sheet and the unusually velvety media--demonstrate the artist's preoccupation with optical effects, such as the suggestion of color, achieved by subtle modulations between media and support." (P.R. Provost, Winslow Homer's Drawings in "Black-and-White," c. 1875-1885, dissertation, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994, pp. 262-63)