Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda, 1899. Winslow Homer. Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper. Amelia B. Lazarus Fund, 1910.
Homer's mature watercolors are suggestive and experimental, immediate responses to visual experience. Although these works look effortless, they were carefully planned, and even the most assured among them reveals the artist's changes and corrections. "You will see, in the future I will live by my watercolors," Homer is reported to have said. His prediction was accurate: his watercolors provided him with a handsome income, they have never ceased to be admired, and their influence on artists of succeeding generations has been profound.