Winslow Homer
American, 1836­1910
The Water Fan
1898/99
Watercolor with graphite on off-white wove paper
37.2 x 53.3 cm
Gift of Dorothy A., John A., Jr., and Christopher Holabird in memory of William and Mary Holabird, 1972.190

Homer’s goal was to capture the many moods of the sea, and the special light and color of very different places. While his paintings of the Maine coast are often somber and cool in tone, his watercolors, like this one of scenes around the Bahamas islands east of Florida, are full of brilliant color. 

Here Homer shows a young man adrift in a small boat on a turquoise sea, harvesting coral in his bucket. The title of the work comes from the large, fan-like piece of coral in the boat behind the fisherman.