Artwork Page for Leaping Trout

Details / Information for Leaping Trout

Leaping Trout

1889

Winslow Homer

(American, 1836–1910)
Culture
America
Medium
watercolor over graphite
Support
Cream(2) wove paper
Measurements
Sheet: 35 x 50.6 cm (13 3/4 x 19 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Anonymous Gift 1973.142
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Noted for his technical variety in watercolors, Homer used a technique called scraping—removing softened paint and paper fibers by taking a blunt or sharp object to the paper’s wet surface—to produce the pond’s two glistening white highlights.

Description

In 1886, Winslow Homer began to produce oil paintings and watercolors of subjects in the Adirondack Mountains, where he and his brother Charles had fished and hunted since the 1870s. In Leaping Trout, a silvery trout propels itself from the water in pursuit of a hapless insect or a fisherman’s fly. Homer’s choice to adopt the fish’s perspective, rather than a fisherman’s, is quite unconventional and heightens the drama and immediacy of the scene. His technique, influenced by the free brushwork of French Impressionism, similarly animates his still-life subject. Luminous washes of transparent blue and grey watercolor suggest the fish’s iridescent skin, while opaque pricks of bright red on its body lend a decorative effect reminiscent of Japanese prints. On the water’s surface, Homer uses scraping to create two brilliant white highlights, and dry brushing to produce the impression of a reflective surface. Although the overall effect is mysterious and dreamlike, the color and movement of the fish is carefully studied, suggesting Homer’s desire to appeal to the sportsmen who might buy his works.
A horizontally oriented watercolor depicts a trout, a fish, mouth open for a moth-like insect, against a dark green-gray background. The trout has a gray-blue body specked with orange dots and a white underbelly. The face and fins are outlined in dark gray melding with orange-pink. Below the fish, highlights of white and blue, particularly on the lower left, differentiate the water from the rest of the background.

Leaping Trout

1889

Winslow Homer

(American, 1836–1910)
America

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