Sunlight on the Coast

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Sunlight on the Coast

Artist Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910

Date1890

DimensionsPainting: 30 1/4 × 48 1/2 in. (76.8 × 123.2 cm)
Frame: 46 × 64 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (116.8 × 163.8 × 13.3 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1912.507

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 29A

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesDownes, W.H., The LIfe and Works of Winslow Homer, Boston and New York, 1911, pp. 154, 155, 165, 258, repr. p. 158.

Bryant, L., American Pictures and their Painters, 1917, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 33, April 1919, repr.

Bryant, L., What Pictures to See in America, 1925, repr.

Mather, F.J., Estimates in Art, series 2, 1931.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 82, June 1938, repr.

Goodrich, Lloyd, Winslow Homer, New York, 1944, pp. 119-121, 127.

Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1958, no. 57, repr.

Ten Eyck Gardner, Albert, Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work, New York, 1961, repr. p. 22.

Gould, Jean, Winslow Homer: A Portrait, New York, 1962, pp. 241-242.

Gunther, Charles F., "Nature and her Moods," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 8, no. 2, Summer 1965, pp. 42-44, repr. p. 43.

Beam, Philip C., Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck, Boston, 1966, pp. 92, 93, 95, repr. p. 92.

Toledo Museum of Art, A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1966, repr.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From Howling Wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 502, repr. (b&w), fig. 14.

Wilmerding, John, "The Last Winslow Homer Show?" American Art Review, vol. 1, no. 1, Sept.-Oct. 1973, p. 62.

Hannaway, Patti, Winslow Homer in the Tropics, Richamond, VA, 1973, p. 101.

Greenhill, Eleanor S., Dictionary of Art, New York, 1974, repr. pl. 31.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 61, 62, pl. 60, color pl. V.

Strickler, Susan E., "American Paintings at the Toledo Museum of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, pp. 1115, 1116, repr. (col.) pl. XIII.

Hendricks, Gordon, The Life and Works of Winslow Homer, New York, 1979, p. 202, 204, repr. (col.) pl. 35, p. 203 and CL - 569, p. 319.

Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European and American Painting, 1880-1906, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1980, no. 256, repr. p. 226.

Stebbins, Theodore E., A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1983, no. 107, p. 336, repr. (col.) p. 187. (French ed., entry on p. 352).

American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, 1986, repr. (col.).

Judge, Mary A., Winslow Homer, New York, 1986, p. 71, repr. (col.) p. 52.

Strickler, Susan E., ed., American Traditions in Watercolor: The Worcester Art Museum Collection, New York, 1987, p. 98, fig. 67a.

Beam, Philip C., Winslow Homer in the 1890s: Prout's Neck Observed, New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1990, no. 9, pp. 81, 88, 106, 111, 141, pl. 12 (col.) p. 82, fig. 56, p. 108.

Robertson, Bruce, Reckoning with Winslow Homer: His Late Paintings and Their Influence, Cleveland, 1990, pp. 21, 22, 30, 39-40, fig. 8.

Simpson, Marc, et. at., Expressions of Place: The Art of William Stanley Haseltine, San Francisco, 1992, pp. 26, 27, fig. 13.

Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair, Washington, 1993, repr. p. 263.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treaures, Toledo, 1995, p. 139, repr. (col.).

Little, Carl, Winslow Homer and the Sea, San Francisco, 1995, repr. p. 42.

Adams, Henry, Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1995, p. 77, repr. (col.)

Kovsky, C., Nicolai and Franklin Kelly, Winslow Homer, Washington, 1995, p. 301, fig. 205, p. 302 (col.).

Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., "'Driftwood,' Winslow Homer's Final Painting," Antiques, vol. 150, no. 1, July 1996, p. 76, pl. IX (col.) pp. 78-79.

Little, Carl, Winslow Homer: His Art, His Light, His Landscapes, Cobb, California, 1997, repr. (col.) pp. 170-171.

Taylor, Bradley L., "The Effect of Surrogation on Viewer Response to Expressional Qualities in Works of Art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2001, pl. L2, p. 179.

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 18.

Johns, Elizabeth, Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002, pp. 134, 135-136, 186, no. 2, pl. 30 (col.).

"Winslow Homer," ARTaFacts Magazine, vol. 9, no. 1, Aug./Sept. 2005, repr. p. 1 [1] (col.).

Mathews, Nancy Mowll, Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film 1880-1910, Manchester, VT, Hudson Hills, 2005, fig. 52, p. 49.

Tedeschi, Martha, Watercolors by Winslow Homer: the Color of Light, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008, p. 123, fig. 12, p. 124 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, pp. 270-71, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Goldin, Marco, Van Gogh and Gauguin's Journey: Variations on a Theme, Treviso, Linea d'ombra, 2011, p. 156-157, repr. (col.) p. 156

Denenberg, Thomas A., ed., Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2012, repr. (col.) p. 91, fig. 2.

Simpson, Marc, Winslow Homer: The Clark Collection, Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2013, repr. (col.) p. 7.

Goodrich, Lloyd, Record of Works by Winslow Homer, Volume 5, 1890 through 1910, New York, Goodrich-Homer Art Education Project, 2014, pp. 93-94, repr. p. 93, no. 1463.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Reichard & Co., 1891.

Chicago, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winslow Homer Memorial Exhibition, 1911, no. 101.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Inaugural Exhibition, 1912, no. 44, repr.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Centenary Exhibition of Works of Winslow Homer, 1836-1936, 1937, no. 34.

Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 18th Annual Exhibition of American Art, 1937, no. 27.

Washington, National Gallery of Art, Winslow Homer: A Retrospective Exhibition, Nov. 23, 1958-Jan. 4, 1959, no. 57.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Winslow Homer, A Retrospective Exhibition, 1959, no. 53.

Tucsun, University Art Gallery, 1963.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Winslow Homer, 1973, no. 51.

Washington, National Gallery of Art, Post-Impressionism, 1980, no. 256.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, Corcoran Gallery; Paris, Grand Palais; A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, 1983-1984.

New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, 1986.

Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery; Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art; Washington, National Museum of American Art; Williamstown, Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Winslow Homer in the 1890s: Prout's Neck Observed, 1990-1991, no. 9.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, 1995-1996.

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Watercolors by Winslow Homer: the Color of Light, Feb. 16-May 11, 2008. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine, June 25, 2022 - November 6, 2022.

Label TextWinslow Homer skillfully conveys nature’s power with almost violent stabs and dabs of his brush representing waves crashing against rocks. Sunlight on the Coast—ironically titled, since the sun has struggled to break through the gloom of an approaching storm—was Homer’s first pure seascape in oils. From this point on he moved away from narrative subjects to primarily scenes of the sea in all its majestic force, painted outdoors. In the late 1800s, critics cast Homer as the ideal American painter, a “rugged individualist.” His move in 1883 to Prout’s Neck, Maine, where he established a seaside studio, was seen as an admirable withdrawal from the noise and commotion of the city to devote himself instead to the solitary life of the artist. “The life that I have chosen gives me my full hours of enjoyment for the balance of my life,” Homer wrote. “The Sun will not rise, or set, without my notice and thanks.”