Returning Fishing Boats 1883

Winslow Homer made this watercolor, “Returning Fishing Boats,” in 1883. It encapsulates some of the key tensions of its time. We see a small fishing boat making its way through choppy waters. In the background, a steamship belches smoke, a symbol of the industrial revolution that was transforming the United States. The painting reflects the anxieties of a society grappling with the shift from traditional ways of life to a more industrialized, mechanized future. Homer, who had previously worked as an illustrator for magazines such as Harper's Weekly, was acutely aware of the changing social landscape. He moved to a remote area on the Maine coast, and there he found the subject matter that defined his late career: working-class people struggling to make a living in a harsh environment. It’s important to recognize the institutional framework that made such a painting possible. The development of watercolor as a medium deemed suitable for serious art helped, as did the growth of a market interested in scenes of everyday life. To truly understand this work, we need to explore the social, economic, and cultural forces at play in late 19th-century America, and it's the job of historians to provide that context.