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The Fog Warning
Artist	Winslow Homer
Year	1876 (1876)
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	76 cm × 122 cm (30 in × 48 in)
Location	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, USA

The Fog Warning

The Fog Warning is one of several of Winslow Homer's paintings with a marine subject. The Fog Warning together with The Herring Net and Breezing Up are known as Winslow Homer's masterpieces of Nort American depiction of marine subjects.

Themes

The American artist Winslow Homer lived between 1836-1910. In the late 1860s and 1870s Winslow Homer painted generally lighter subjects, depicting country life, young women, children, and farm animals. He placed his figures in elegant or romantic environments or pastoral landscapes. Over time the paintings made by Homer became more dramatic, reaching a climax in the last period of the American master.

Homer settled in Prout's Neck, Maine at the end of 1882 (or beginning of 1883?), after his father and brother had purchased almost all of the (peninsula? village?). Homer's brother had spent his honeymoon at Prout's Neck in 1875, and Winslow had visited him there.(http://www.portlandmuseum.org/homer/about-winslow-homer) Homer's studio was completed in 1884. In 1885 he painted three canvases depicting the local fishermen, of which The Fog Warning was one.

The third painting is The Herring Net http://www.winslowhomer.org/the-herring-net.jsp

The painting

This painting depicts a psychological drama of a fisherman in danger of getting lost at sea. The fisherman who was out fishing for halibut is surprised out at sea by the fog. He has grabbed the oars and he is on his way towards the shore, to escape from being fogbound.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/the-fog-warning-31042

The painting was erroneously known as Halibut Fishing, but this was not a title given by the painting's sponsor.(?? it had a sponsor??) http://www.winslowhomer.org/the-fog-warning.jsp Later in 1885 he left with his family for the Caribbean. (Portland museum source) The sea is a dangerous area, the title The Fog Warning reminds us of all the possible dangers a life at sea means. The painting is more disturbing than the calm sunny country life scenes that Winslow Homer depicted before.

A fisherman is out on the sea is on his way to be captured by the fog. He grabbed the oars and he is on his way towards the boat, to escape from the fog. We don't know how this battle of man and the elements will end. The wind might change and he can reach his boat or he can be lost out at the sea alone in this small boat. The real tragedy is present in other Winslow Homer works, Lost on the Grand Banks of 1885 and After the tornado. The sea in After the tornado is quiet, but the tragedy has already occurred. Waves of debris . The body of a black fishermen and his fishing boat are thrown on the coast . The painting is simple and terrifying,

The psychological tension in Homer's painting The Fog Warning is still there because we don't know if he will escape or not.

another -

In the painting "Summer Night" Homer presents a view from the shore towards the raging sea, that waves? in a dramatic performace. .But on the coast the storm is not a real danger, and just tickles the spectators nerves. Two girls dance on the shore.

• Winslow Homer's marine paintings
• Crab Fishing
• Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)
• The Herring Net
• Summer Night

Literature

• Cooper, Helen A., Winslow Homer Watercolors, p. 16. Yale University Press, 1986.
• Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Winslow Homer, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1990, pp. 11-13, ISBN 0-8109-1193-0
• Elizabeth Johns, Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002, p. 9, ISBN 0-520-22725-5
• Randall C. Griffin, Winslow Homer: An American Vision. Phaidon Press, New York, 2006, ISBN 0-7148-3992-2 .

External links

• See External Video from Smarthistory about The Fog Warning by Winslow Homer

External videos
Homer's The Fog Warning (Halibut Fishing)

References

1. "The Fog Warning". http://www.mfa.org. Retrieved September 2014. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
2. "The Herring-net". http://www.winslowhomer.org. Retrieved September 2014. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
3. "Boston Museum The Fog Warning". http://www.mfa.org. Retrieved September 2014. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)