Key West, Hauling Anchor
A white boat with sails lowered floats in an aquamarine-blue ocean under a pale, sapphire-blue sky in this horizontal watercolor painting. To our right of center, the boat floats with its right, starboard side facing us and the bow angled slightly away. The white sails bunch up under the lowered, horizontal booms just above the top of the boat. The masts and rigging extend off the top of the composition. A group of a few people are gathered in the bow, on the far side of the sails. They are painted loosely but appear to have brown skin and red or black clothing. Waves lap against the side of the boat. To our left, an island or sliver of land with three palm trees deep in the distance lines the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. The water and sky are painted with layers of pale washes. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower left corner with dark paint: “HOMER KEY WEST 1903.”
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- Winslow Homer
- Date
- 1903
- Dimensions
- sheet: 35.6 × 55.4 cm (14 × 21 13/16 in.)
- Department
- CG-W
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of Ruth K. Henschel in memory of her husband, Charles R. Henschel
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Nautical Both · 99%
A sailing vessel with masts, rigging, lowered sails, and a hull occupies the center of the composition; the title and catalog description identify the maritime subject.
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Water Both · 99%
Extensive blue-green ocean water fills the foreground and surrounds the vessel; the catalog explicitly describes an aquamarine-blue ocean.
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Waterscapes Both · 95%
The image presents a broad view of open water, sky, horizon, and distant land rather than an isolated boat study.
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Modes of Transportation Both · 97%
The principal depicted object is a sailing boat, a means of transportation, shown afloat with its sails lowered.
Visual Qualities
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Asymmetrical Visual · 96%
The large vessel extends across the middle and right portions of the sheet, while open water and the distant horizon remain more expansive on the left, producing an uneven compositional distribution.
Medium and Techniques
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Drawing Both · 99%
The work visibly combines drawn graphite contours with watercolor washes, and the catalog classifies it as a drawing made with watercolor over graphite on wove paper.
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Watercolor Both · 99%
Translucent blue, green, gray, and white washes are prominent throughout the image, and the catalog specifies watercolor over graphite.
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Work on Paper Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the support as wove paper and provides sheet dimensions of 35.6 × 55.4 cm.
Time Periods
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1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to 1903, placing it within the 1900–1917 period.
Source & rights
Winslow Homer. Key West, Hauling Anchor. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 5,300 × 3,411 · National Gallery Of Art · Available