Channel Bass

Winslow Homer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In January 1904, Homer arrived in Homosassa, a village on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Declaring the fishing there “the best in America," the artist-outdoorsman also capitalized on the activity’s creative potential, as he had during previous angling expeditions in the Adirondacks and Canada. This watercolor features a channel bass, whose sparkling scales Homer likened to "a $20 gold piece." In a nod to the Homosassa River’s famously clear, shallow water, the artist surrounded the fish with layers of transparent lapis-blue wash. The luminous jewel tones belie harsher realities: the bass appears to have been "foul-hooked" (caught outside the mouth), its connection to the line precarious. Glass bottles in the river amplify the sense of human encroachment on the environment, while also providing an indication of scale.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art