A Clam-Bake
During the first part of his career, Winslow Homer supported himself as an illustrator, but in the early 1870s he found that he could make a good living through the sale of his watercolors. His early watercolors, such as this one of boys on a beach at Gloucester, Massachusetts, show a tentative use of the technique and often have the effect of colored line drawings. Homer later combined the composition of this watercolor with other sketches to produce the illustration A Clam-Bake, which appeared in Harper's Weekly on August 23, 1873.
Colors in this work
Details
- Date
- 1873
- Dimensions
- sheet: height 0.197 m, width 0.346 m
- Origin
- America
- Department
- Drawings
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of Mrs. Homer H. Johnson
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Figures in Nature Both · 99%
Several human figures are gathered in a natural coastal setting; the catalog specifically identifies the scene as boys on a beach at Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 98%
The image includes an expansive sea, a low horizon, shoreline rocks, and distant sailboats, while the catalog identifies the beach setting.
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Scenes of Everyday Life Both · 80%
A casually dressed group is shown gathered outdoors in an ordinary beach setting rather than in a formal portrait or historical scene; the catalog describes boys on a beach.
Visual Qualities
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Contour Line Both · 95%
Dark drawn contours visibly define figures, clothing, rocks, and shoreline forms, consistent with the catalog’s description of Homer’s early watercolors as having the effect of colored line drawings.
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Earth Tones Visual · 84%
Ochres, tans, browns, grays, and muted violet-browns are prominent in the beach, rocks, and clothing, creating an earthy component within the subdued coastal palette.
Medium and Techniques
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Drawing Both · 99%
The work visibly combines drawn contours with watercolor and opaque painted passages, and the museum classifies it as a drawing in watercolor, gouache, and graphite.
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Watercolor Metadata · 99%
Watercolor is explicitly listed in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s medium description and is also visibly present in the broad washes across the sky, sea, figures, and shore.
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Work on Paper Metadata · 98%
The museum records the dimensions as those of a sheet and classifies the object as a drawing, supporting its identification as a work on paper.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The work is dated 1873, placing it within the nineteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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American Art Metadata · 99%
The artist is identified as American and the place of origin is recorded as America.
Source & rights
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910). A Clam-Bake. Cleveland Museum of Art.
High-resolution sources
- Original TIFF ↗ 5,000 × 2,862 · Cleveland Museum Of Art · Available