Description
Homer created some of the most luminous and influential watercolors in the history of the medium. A Fisherman’s Daughter, painted in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is among a group of works that represent his first sustained use of the medium. Here, three girls sit on the shore of a sunlit beach and play with a lobster. Their downcast eyes suggest a solemn tranquility to their activity. The life of the local fishermen was perilous; they often spent weeks away from home and were sometimes lost at sea. Thus, waiting was a central part of life for Gloucester families. An overturned boat on the dunes behind the figures evokes the ominous form of a coffin.
Provenance
Edward M. Colie, East Orange, NJ; Miss Margaret Colie, Mill Valley, CA; (Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY); (Valentine Gallery, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (?–1943); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 29, 1943–)
Accession Number
1943.660
Medium
watercolor and gouache over graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 24.2 x 32.9 cm (9 1/2 x 12 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Watercolor Graphite & Pencil Gouache American Color: Orange Color: Gray
Background & Context
Background Story
A Fisherman's Daughter (1873) depicts a subject that Homer would explore throughout his career: the women of fishing communities, whose lives were shaped by the sea's dangers and whose work sustained the coastal economy while men were at sea. The painting's 1873 date places it early in Homer's career, before his transformative Cullercoats experience had deepened his treatment of such subjects. Yet even in this early work, the fisherman's daughter carries a gravity that distinguishes Homer's approach from the more sentimental treatments of fisher-children that were common in 1870s genre painting. The fisherman's daughter—as a subject type—embodied a specific social reality: girls who grew up in fishing communities learned early that the sea was both livelihood and threat, and their identity was formed by this knowledge. Homer's treatment likely emphasizes the child's connection to the coast—her familiarity with the sea, her comfort in the maritime landscape—that would become characteristic of his later, more powerful treatments of fisherwomen. The year 1873 was a productive one for Homer, who was establishing himself as a serious artist rather than merely a skilled illustrator, and A Fisherman's Daughter represents a step toward the maritime subjects that would define his career.
Cultural Impact
Homer's fisherwomen paintings influenced how women's roles in fishing communities were represented in American art, establishing a tradition of maritime femininity that combined strength with vulnerability. The paintings influenced later American genre painters who similarly depicted coastal working women. The fisherman's daughter subject influenced how childhood in maritime communities was visualized, contributing to the cultural understanding of coastal life's specific character.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it represents an early stage in Homer's development of the subject—the women of fishing communities—that would produce some of his greatest work. The fisherman's daughter of 1873 is the predecessor of the monumental fisherwomen of the Cullercoats period, and understanding this early treatment illuminates how Homer's vision deepened through experience and sustained attention.
