![Winslow Homer - Northeaster [1895, reworked 1901]](http://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5518/30599934363_f880c0d26b_b.jpg)
On the Maine coast, a “nor’easter” is a storm of exceptional violence and duration. When Homer first showed this canvas in 1895, it included two men in foul-weather gear crouching on the rocks below the column of spray, which, moreover, was less massive. Even though the painting was well received and was purchased by a leading collector of American art, Homer later reworked it to powerful effect. As one critic observed in 1901, after the repainting, "Northeaster" presented “three fundamental facts, the rugged strength of the rocks, the weighty, majestic movement of the sea and the large atmosphere of great natural spaces unmarked by the presence of puny man.”
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 87.6 x 127 cm]