Winslow HomerAmerican, 1836–1910The Herring Net
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “The Herring Net” now? Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 161, Chicago. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
Chicago, United States
Closed· opens tomorrow at 11:00 AM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
In 1883 Winslow Homer moved to the small coastal village of Prouts Neck, Maine, where he created a series of paintings of the sea unparalleled in American art. Long inspired by the subject, Homer had spent summers visiting New England fishing villages during the 1870s, and in 1881–82 he made a trip to a fishing community in Cullercoats, England, that fundamentally changed his work and his life. The paintings he created after 1882 focus almost exclusively on humankind’s age-old contest with nature. Here Homer depicted the heroic efforts of fishermen at their daily work, hauling in an abundant catch of herring. In a small dory, two figures loom large against the mist on the horizon, through which the sails of the mother schooners are dimly visible. While one fisherman hauls in the netted and glistening herring, the other unloads the catch.
Read on
Utilizing the teamwork so necessary for survival, both strive to steady the precarious boat as it rides the incoming swells. Homer’s isolation of these two figures underscores the monumentality of their task: the elemental struggle against a sea that both nurtures and deprives.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 1937.1039
What it shows
In the catalog
Display history
On view · Gallery 161
Art Institute of Chicago · Sep 28, 2026 — now · Verified
Was on view · Gallery 171
Art Institute of Chicago · Aug 19, 2026 — Sep 28, 2026 · Verified
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — CC0
In the life of Winslow Homer
The whole lifesummer 1883
Moves to Prouts Neck
In the summer of 1883 Homer moved from New York to Prouts Neck, a peninsula ten miles south of Portland, Maine, and lived there for the rest of his life, using solitude to work. He settled on the family estate, in a remodelled carriage house seventy-five feet from the ocean.
1884
Death of his mother
In 1884 Homer's mother died: his first teacher and the strongest influence on him. After her death he became a “parent” to his ageing but domineering father, and his sister-in-law Martha (“Mattie”) became his closest female intimate.
winter 1884 – 1885
Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas
In the winter of 1884–1885 Homer travelled to Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas, painting a series of watercolours commissioned by Century Magazine: the storm-tossed green sea of Prouts Neck gave way to the sparkling blue skies of the Caribbean, and for Edith Blake, wife of the governor of the Bahamas, he painted “Children Under a Palm Tree”. “A Garden in Nassau” (1885) is one of the best of these watercolours, but they proved too advanced for traditional buyers.
