| Winslow Homer’s position as a great American artist was secured in the
mid-1890s by the series of epic seascapes he produced at Prout’s Neck,
Maine. Among this group, A Light on the Sea is notable as the artist’s
final conception to include a female figure. (Although Early Evening [Freer Collection],
an image that includes two women, is dated 1907, it was conceived and largely
painted in 1881.) The woman pictured here balances on the rocks near the water’s
edge. With her head turned sharply to her left and hands firmly planted at her
waist, the stalwart column of her form, positioned left of center, contrasts
against the horizontal, fluid seascape. The title’s light on the sea
shimmers intensely in the middle ground, joining sea and sky. . . .
- Margaret C. Conrads, Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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