Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)

Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)

Winslow Homer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Homer may have recorded this scene of a boat in distress as he was sailing between the Bahamas and Cuba in early 1885. Rapidly drawn in a sketchbook (from which it has been removed), it seems to record his initial impression of the disaster that inspired the painting The Gulf Stream fifteen years later. Here, a dismasted boat with one or two figures on deck is tossed on rough seas as it heads into an ominous storm. Homer would also incorporate elements of this composition into the watercolor Sharks (1885, Brooklyn Museum).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)Distressed Boat (Sketch for "The Gulf Stream") (recto); Floor Plan Diagram; Elevation of a domestic residence (verso)

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.