in its composition and technique shows that we can feel truly reposeful and energetic at once. It has in it a man on a boat whose mast has been broken and swept away by a hurricane, adrift in the restless sea, and surrounded by sharks. I once thought it justified my feeling that the world was cruel and battered one about.
I learned this was not what this painting is about, or why I liked it. Homer's The Gulf Stream met my deepest hope to like the world honestly because it puts opposites together in a way that shows the world makes sense.
The tumultuous sea and whitecaps, the sharks, broken boat and waterspout in the distance on the right all have motion and turbulence. Yet the man seems strangely at ease as he rests on his elbow, looking out. Homers composition shows that both man and world are a relation of "repose and energy, calmness and intensity, serenity and stir." --Daniel Reiss
I love that painting!
Interesting and different view. That's the thing about critics, it is all about that person's view. Sometimes they are quite enlightening. Sometimes they are more concerned with making a good impression. Just like others of us in life.