Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sun rising through Vapour: Fishermen cleaning and selling Fish

National Gallery, London

Date: before 1807
Technique: Oil on canvas, 134 x 179.5 cm

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Winslow Homer, The Herring Net

Art Institute of Chicago

Date: 1885
Technique: Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 122.9 cm

In this painting Homer Winslow depicted the heroic efforts of fishermen at their daily work, hauling in an abundant catch of herring. In a small dory, two figures loom large against the mist on the horizon, through which the sails of the mother schooners are dimly visible. While one fisherman hauls in the netted and glistening herring, the other unloads the catch. Utilizing the teamwork so necessary for survival, both strive to steady the precarious boat as it rides the incoming swells. Homer’s isolation of these two figures underscores the monumentality of their task: the elemental struggle against a sea that both nurtures and deprives.
— Entry, Essential Guide, 2013, p. 41.

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