A buck jerks to the right as it leaps toward us, over a boulder and away from a rolling river in this horizontal watercolor painting. The buck is just right of center, and his body scissors, presumably as a gunshot lands. His curling horns nearly meet in an oval overhead, and one front leg is pulled up. The river is painted with tones of spruce green and sapphire, topaz, and celestial blue. The black silhouettes of two animals, either more deer or dogs, are in the distance to the right, and a white puff is along the far bank to the left. The forested background is painted broadly with tones of earthy green, tan, and smoky blue. The artist signed and dated the watercolor in the lower left corner, “Oct 12 1892 Homer.”

A Good Shot, Adirondacks

Winslow Homer

A buck jerks to the right as it leaps toward us, over a boulder and away from a rolling river in this horizontal watercolor painting. The buck is just right of center, and his body scissors, presumably as a gunshot lands. His curling horns nearly meet in an oval overhead, and one front leg is pulled up. The river is painted with tones of spruce green and sapphire, topaz, and celestial blue. The black silhouettes of two animals, either more deer or dogs, are in the distance to the right, and a white puff is along the far bank to the left. The forested background is painted broadly with tones of earthy green, tan, and smoky blue. The artist signed and dated the watercolor in the lower left corner, “Oct 12 1892 Homer.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Winslow Homer
Date
1892
Medium
watercolor on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 38.2 × 54.5 cm (15 1/16 × 21 7/16 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

  • Animals Both · 99%

    A prominent antlered buck is visible in the foreground, with two smaller dark animal-like silhouettes on the distant right; the catalog also describes these animals.

  • Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 99%

    The image shows a broad river or waterscape within a wooded setting, consistent with the catalog’s description of a rolling river in the Adirondacks.

  • Movement Visual · 98%

    The buck is depicted airborne over the boulder, with splayed legs, an angled body, and a sharply directional pose that makes motion central to the composition.

  • Conflict Metadata · 82%

    The title and catalog description imply a hunting incident in which a gunshot may be landing, although no shooter or firearm is visible.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 96%

    Deep greens, blue-greens, smoky blues, browns, and muted tans dominate the image, producing a notably dark palette.

Medium and Techniques

  • Watercolor Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art identifies the medium as watercolor on wove paper.

  • Work on Paper Both · 99%

    The catalog identifies the support as wove paper, and the image visibly presents a rectangular work on a sheet.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Visual · 86%

    Broad, broken watercolor applications and active linear marks describe the river, forest, boulder, and deer with visibly loose handling.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The work is dated 1892 in the National Gallery of Art record.

Source & rights

Winslow Homer. A Good Shot, Adirondacks. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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