Danger
This painting shows two women walking towards the left on a gray-brown shore, dressed in white blouses and blue skirts, one wearing red stockings. They both have pale skin, and their faces are turned away from us. Their skirts are blowing in the wind, and strands of dark hair have come out of their low buns. The sea behind them is turbulent with crashing white and blue waves, under a dark gray overcast sky. The shore is dotted with small areas of green, white, and rusty red. The scene is painted in soft and fluid strokes.
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- Winslow Homer
- Date
- 1883/1887
- Dimensions
- sheet: 37.4 × 53.3 cm (14 3/4 × 21 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
- Bequest of Julia B. Engel
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 99%
The composition centers on a shoreline and a broad body of turbulent water, matching the catalog description of two women walking along a shore with crashing waves.
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Figures in Nature Both · 98%
Two human figures are visibly situated within a natural coastal environment rather than presented as isolated portraits.
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Atmospheric Landscapes Both · 94%
A dark overcast sky, softened horizon, windblown clothing and hair, and rough surf give the coastal scene a distinctly weather-laden atmosphere.
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Movement Visual · 92%
The women’s leftward stride, lifted skirts, streaming hair, and the broken diagonal forms of the surf create visible movement.
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Implied Narrative Interpretive · 76%
The title *Danger*, combined with the rough sea, dark weather, and figures moving along the exposed shore, suggests an unspecified hazard without identifying a particular event.
Visual Qualities
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Earth Tones Visual · 94%
The image uses a subdued palette dominated by gray, brown, blue, off-white, and muted green, with small rusty-orange accents in the shore.
Medium and Techniques
-
Drawing Both · 99%
The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a drawing, and the image shows visible graphite-like linear definition beneath painted passages on paper.
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Watercolor Both · 99%
The catalog identifies watercolor and gouache over graphite; the image visibly contains transparent washes and opaque pale passages, although the individual paints cannot be distinguished with certainty from the image alone.
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Work on Paper Both · 99%
The work is cataloged as a drawing on a sheet, and the image visibly presents a painted and drawn scene on a paper support.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to 1883/1887, placing it in the nineteenth century.
Source & rights
Winslow Homer. Danger. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 12,845 × 9,041 · National Gallery Of Art · Available