Collections: American Art: Maine Cliffs

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Maine Cliffs

Winslow Homer increasingly subordinated the human figure to the landscape in works produced after he moved to the coastal town of Prout’s Neck, Maine. In this watercolor, he rendered the boulders as an almost abstract series of intersecting planes, highlighted with bright accents of color including the red berries in the shrubs and the blue streak of ocean in the distance. The high horizon line and flattened space betray the artist’s familiarity with Japanese prints.


• Artist: Winslow Homer, American, 1836-1910
• Medium: Watercolor over charcoal on cream, thick, rough-textured wove paper
• Dates: 1883
• Dimensions: 13 3/8 x 19 3/16in. (34 x 48.7cm) Frame: 24 x 30 x 1 1/2 in. (61 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm)
• Signature: Signed and dated lower right: "Homer 1883"
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 50.184
• Credit Line: Bequest of Sidney B. Curtis in memory of S. W. Curtis
• Image: Overall, 50.184.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910). Maine Cliffs, 1883. Watercolor over charcoal on cream, thick, rough-textured wove paper, 13 3/8 x 19 3/16in. (34 x 48.7cm) Frame: 24 x 30 x 1 1/2 in. (61 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Sidney B. Curtis in memory of S. W. Curtis, 50.184 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 50.184.jpg)