Two Studies of Women Standing behind Railing, Looking at the Launching of Dories, Cullercoats, England

Winslow Homer's pen-and-ink studies capture a seaside moment at Cullercoats, on England's northeast coast. The upper composition shows women at a railing observing fishermen and their dories on the beach, with a pitched-roof cottage anchoring the left side. Below, Homer worked out details of three women's figures and a single boat, testing poses and proportions. These working sketches reveal Homer's process during his transformative years abroad (1881–1882), when he moved from illustration toward fine art painting, studying light, labor, and the interplay between observers and observed at the water's edge.