Schooner with Three Dories 1880

Winslow Homer made this watercolor and graphite drawing, ‘Schooner with Three Dories,’ in 1880, and the work reflects his deep engagement with maritime life and labor off the New England coast. The image’s meaning is created through visual codes and cultural references to American maritime history, especially the lives of sailors and fishermen. Homer, working in a period of growing industrialization and urbanization, often turned to rural or maritime subjects, evoking a simpler, pre-industrial past. This yearning for an imagined past was common among the artistic and intellectual elites, even as others were left in poverty. Homer's work invites us to consider the social conditions of artistic production. Art historians can use census records, newspapers, and other primary source materials to understand better the economic and social context in which an artwork like this was made. In doing so, we gain insight into the complex relationship between art and society.