Mending the Nets

Winslow Homer

National Gallery of Art

Two pale-skinned young women sit side-by-side on a bench so both face our right in profile as one knits and one mends a fishing net in this vertical watercolor. Both have pale skin with flushed cheeks and long blond hair. They wear long skirts, clog-like shoes, and the bodices have elbow-length sleeves. The woman closer to us has her hair pulled back under a band so wavy tendrils fall around her shoulders. She holds knitting needles and her work in one hand and pulls a thread of robin’s egg-blue yarn up with the other. The ball of yarn sits on the cobblestoned ground, and she lifts the string with her elbow raised so her hand is by her face. She looks down at the yarn. Her shirt is muted yellow over a red cloth across her chest. Her lap is covered by a tawny-brown cloth over her celestial-blue skirt, and her ankles are crossed. The farther woman’s hair is up, and she wears marine blue with brick-red stockings. She leans forward with a tool in her right hand, that elbow tucked back by her side. With her other hand, she holds the end of a fishing net that hangs on a wall opposite the women. An oval basket also hangs on the wall, which edges into the scene along the right edge of the paper. The cobblestones fade out rapidly beyond the sage-green bench, and the background is cream-white. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, “Winslow Homer 1882.”