Summer Squall 1904

Winslow Homer made this painting, Summer Squall, and the Clark is lucky to have it. Look at the greens and the greys and the whites of the waves. Homer is slinging paint here, trying to catch the light, trying to get it right. I can imagine him in front of the scene. The sea is right there, doing its thing, and he’s probably thinking about how Corbet did seascapes, but I can imagine him wanting to do something entirely different. To make a painting that is the feeling of being there. To show what it's like to be in the middle of all that force. See those waves? You can almost feel the crash. What's special is that it’s not just a picture of a wave, it's a painting of one, which means that he has made this wave for us to feel. Homer is in conversation with the sea and also with all the other painters who have tried to capture it.