Three Boys in a Dory with Lobster Pots

A meditation on marine life, Three Boys in a Dory with Lobster Pots revisits work Winslow Homer made during a trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts, two years earlier. On that trip Homer became fascinated by watercolor while painting the role of the ocean in the daily lives of local children. He based this watercolor on two works from the earlier trip: the oil painting Gloucester Harbor (hanging nearby) and an illustration for Harper’s Weekly. In this later watercolor, Homer stripped away the ships in the background. He focused on the boys in the dory instead of the activity of what was then one of the nation’s busiest seaports.