The Fog Warning

A lone halibut fisherman in a dory on the Grand Banks pauses at his oars, twisting to gauge a wall of fog rolling in. Two halibut lie in the boat as his distant schooner rides the swells — uncertain whether he'll reach it before the fog swallows everything.

Homer used his handyman Henry Lee as a model posed in a dory propped on sand at Prout's Neck, Maine. The painting conveys overwhelming open ocean despite this improvised setup.

Together with The Herring Net and Breezing Up, considered among Homer's finest marine paintings. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.