Art, literature & historyBoy in Boat, Gloucester
1880/81
- Dating
- Date range
- Held at
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Medium
- Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor and scraping, over graphite, on moderately thick, rough-textured, ivory wove paper
- Dimensions
- 23.2 × 34.9 cm (9 3/16 × 13 3/4 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1933.1243
- Attribution
- By the artist
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
About this artwork
Boy in Boat, Gloucester — Winslow Homer. 1880/81.
Medium: Transparent watercolor, with touches of opaque watercolor and scraping, over graphite, on moderately thick, rough-textured, ivory wove paper. Dimensions: 23.2 × 34.9 cm (9 3/16 × 13 3/4 in.).
Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Homer began Boy in Boat, Gloucester while staying at the lighthouse on Ten Pound Island in the harbor of the fishing town Gloucester, Massachusetts. During his time in Gloucester, the artist frequently depicted local boys playing on boats, fishing, and waiting for their fathers to return from the sea. In this watercolor he began experimenting with scraping, revealing the white of the paper to create highlights in the large rock at right. Furthermore, he was developing his skill in transparent watercolor , which he used to great effect for the reflective surface of the water.
Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.