The Coming Storm

A rugged shoreline stretches beneath a heavy sky, its weathered tree twisted above pale turquoise water that meets jagged rocks. Thick gray clouds gather overhead, suggesting the approach of rough weather along the exposed coast. This piece was made in 1901 using watercolor over graphite, and it is held at the National Gallery of Art. Winslow Homer (1836–1910), an American artist associated with realism, also created the notable work A Country Lad. The contrast between the cool turquoise sea and the darkened, brooding clouds gives the composition a tense, charged atmosphere, as if the quiet moment before the storm has been caught just before everything changes along that rocky, isolated edge of land.