Study for Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts

Winslow Homer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although Homer made his professional headquarters in New York City from 1859 to 1883, he focused his art on rural and seaside life. He typically sketched and painted outdoors during the seasons of good weather, then referred to his studies to create more ambitious works in his urban studio. He probably painted this oil sketch during a visit to a popular beach resort in 1869. For the final canvas, also on view in this gallery, he expanded the foreground to accommodate three bathers, and enhanced the definition of the breaking wave.

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