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Cannon Rock

Winslow Homer American
1895
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 756
Prouts Neck, Maine, where Homer spent most of his last twenty-five years, hosted a vibrant summer community that dispersed during the winter months. The artist enjoyed the tranquility of the off-season, when the storms were fiercer and the ocean more changeable and dramatic. Cannon Rock, seen protruding from the outcropping at lower right, takes its name from its resemblance to a cannon seen from behind and from the booming sound of the surf breaking at its base, particularly during stormy weather.

In 1903, a critic for the New York Times admired Cannon Rock for the "infinite zest" and "virility" of Homer’s brushwork—especially evident in the thick impasto of the cresting wave—and declared him "the greatest living marine painter of the age."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cannon Rock
  • Artist: Winslow Homer (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1836–1910 Prouts Neck, Maine)
  • Date: 1895
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of George A. Hearn, 1906
  • Object Number: 06.1281
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover), Winslow Homer American, Lithograph
Annie Lawrie (Sheet music cover)
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Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
Sunday Morning in Virginia – From the Painting by Winslow Homer in the National Academy of Design (from "Harper's Weekly," Vol. XXIV)
Winslow Homer
May 22, 1880
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
A Quiet Day in the Country (from "Appleton's Journal," Vol. III)
Winslow Homer
D. Appleton & Co.
June 6, 1870
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
George Blake's Letter (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. IX)
Winslow Homer
January 1870
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI), Winslow Homer American, Wood engraving
"I Cannot! It Would Be a Sin! A Fearful Sin!" (The Galaxy, An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. VI)
Winslow Homer
September 1868

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