Winslow Homer
Homer painted this sunset over Saco Bay in Maine not far from Prout’s Neck, where Homer lived and worked towards the end of his life. The painting was painted from a spot near his studio.
The painting represents an ideal of Americanism, universal with respect to time and economic class. This character is reflected in their figures, history, and symbolism. To be an American, according to Homer, is to resist solitarily against an unsympathetic, inhospitable environment. Here, the figures depict labor with dignity despite unfavorable conditions. In Sunset, Saco Bay, after a day of collecting traps carried away by a storm threatening to take their husbands as well, two fisherwomen walk undauntedly and determinedly back home. They seem as solid and enduring as the rocks beneath their feet. They were among the last figures Homer included in his paintings, as he increasingly turned his attention to the sea.
One contemporary reviewer criticized the scene’s “unnatural strawberry sky,” but the artist considered it one of his best works. Sometimes I don't get art critics. What's wrong with unnatural strawberry skies?