Rare Winslow Homer Exhibition Opens in Boston This November
The Museum of Fine Arts will unveil Winslow Homer watercolors that have been hidden for nearly 50 years—and it’s a spectacular show.
The Adirondack Guide (1894) by Winslow Homer. / Photo by © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Winslow Homer bridged centuries as one of America’s greatest artists, excelling not only in oil painting but also earning reverence as our country’s preeminent watercolorist. With just washes and brushes on paper, he could evoke profound emotions through vibrant inland and seacoast scenes.
Boston is lucky: The Museum of Fine Arts holds the world’s largest collection of Homer’s watercolors, and nearly 50 will emerge from storage for “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor,” running November 2 through January 10, 2026. We’re especially fortunate considering these works are so fragile that they literally haven’t seen daylight in almost half a century. “You’ll see the merits of keeping them in the dark, because they’re in stunning condition,” says Ethan Lasser, chair of the MFA’s Art of the Americas. “But the ephemerality is real.”
Fisherman’s Family (The Lookout) (1881) by Winslow Homer. / Photo by © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ripe with color and flush with motion, these watercolors capture evanescent moments: a solitary rower canoeing through Adirondack forests, leaping rainbow trout, a fisherman’s family gazing seaward from russet clifftops, waves crashing on rocks. The exhibition spans Homer’s full arc, from childhood works created while growing up in Cambridge to his final pieces on Maine’s rocky shores. “Homer was so dedicated to representing the natural world, and watercolor was really the medium that let him do that in exciting ways,” says Christina Michelon, the MFA’s curator of prints and drawings. “You’ll see his technique evolving.”
Michelon sees this exhibition as particularly accessible to the general public because “we love thinking of watercolor as this extremely accessible medium for all of us, as everyone has probably done watercolors as a child—we all pick up a brush and dabble.” But Homer transformed this everyday medium into masterworks that must be experienced in person, far more vivid and alive than any reproduction. “Every generation gets a turn to see these works,” Lasser explains. “This is your chance before they go back to bed for another 50 years. So come now.” mfa.org.
This article was first published in the print edition of the September 2025 issue with the headline: “Homer’s Big Reveal.”
