The Gulf Stream

Threatened by sharks and a waterspout, a Black man faces his demise aboard a damaged boat. The painting represents the culmination of Homer’s interest in depicting conflict between humans and nature. Sugarcane, the Caribbean commodity central to the economy of empire, and transatlantic slavery are linked by the titular Gulf Stream current. Homer interwove geopolitical themes into an epic saga that foregrounds human struggle—personified by a stoic survivor—against the relentless power of nature and history.