Hudson River

A stack of freshly cut logs sprawls across the rocky bank of the Hudson River in this 1892 watercolor by Winslow Homer. A logger pauses in the middle of it all, resting against the timber with his wide-brimmed hat tilted low. Behind him the water runs dark and restless, and the shadowy line of trees suggests the deep wilderness that pulled Homer north during the last decades of his life.

By this point Homer had traded busier subjects for the rough country of Maine and the Adirondacks, and he often stayed at the North Woods Club in upstate New York, where logging and fishing shaped everyday life. He had become one of America's finest watercolorists, and his handling of the medium here shows why. The wet paint pools and streaks to catch the churn of the river, while quick, sure strokes give the logs their weight and coarse grain.

Homer plays two moods against each other in this scene. The piled timber and the seated man feel solid and unhurried, while the current beyond them keeps moving with real force. The subject is plain enough, just a working man and a river, but it speaks honestly about labor and the untamed land at a moment when much of America still looked wild.