Realism Abroad

Winslow Homer

The Gulf Stream

1899, reworked by 1906

Oil on canvas, 71.4 × 124.8 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A Black sailor lies on the deck of a dismasted boat, sharks circling, a waterspout behind.

• The Met notes that the current links the sugarcane on board to the history of transatlantic slavery.
• Homer gives no outcome: whether the sailor is rescued is left open.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Public Domain (Met Open Access)