3-015-969 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

West Point, Prout's Neck, 1900. Seawater surges around massive rocks as bands of brilliant colour stretch across the horizon, casting a rosy glow over the ocean. "The picture is painted fifteen minutes after sunset, not one minute before," wrote Homer about this work, which he considered to be among his best paintings. To record such a fleeting moment, he explained, took "many days of careful observation" from a specific point along the Maine coast, near his studio in Prouts Neck.