The Herring Net

In the pictureA small wooden boat floats on gray-green waves. At the left end of the boat a fisherman in a sou'wester crouches, and in the middle another fisherman bends at the waist to haul in the net. Both wear dark oilskins. Dozens of silvery herring caught in the net hanging over the right side of the boat glint, and an oar rises diagonally toward the upper right. On the water in front floats an orange-red buoy. The sky is a misty gray-brown, and a few sailboats are faint on the horizon far to the left and right.

BackgroundWinslow Homer drew the Civil War while working as a magazine illustrator, and from 1881 into the following year he stayed in Cullercoats, a fishing village in northeast England, observing the sea and fishermen. In 1883 he settled at Prouts Neck on the coast of Maine, and he painted the sea there until his death in 1910. Painted in 1885, this picture is counted, together with The Fog Warning of the same year, among his signature works on fishermen laboring on rough seas.

Puzzle tipThe boat and the two fishermen in the middle form the darkest mass, so they are good to fit first. Next come the silvery herring in the net, joined along the diagonal that spreads from the side of the boat toward the lower right. The orange buoy is almost the only warm color in the picture, so it quickly finds its place. What remains is sky and sea. The sky is an evenly textured gray-brown, and the sea is deep green mixed with white crests, so they can be told apart. The horizon runs almost level a little above the middle of the picture, so use it as the dividing line. 100 pieces is about right.