A Basket of Clams, Winslow Homer, watercolor and gouache, roughly 11 x 10 inches (29 x 25 cm). In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has both zoomable and downloadable versions of the image available.
The museum lists the materials of this early watercolor by Homer as simply “watercolor on wove paper”. Why there is no mention of the obvious use of gouache is surprising to me. Usually, museums will indicate the use of gouache with watercolors or drawings, even if it’s just “touches of gouache”.
Here, Homer has used opaque white quite liberally, not just in the obvious highlights on the ship, the ship’s rigging, the children’s clothing and the shark and stones on the beach; I think the pale blue of the vest on the figure at left looks like a scumble of light opaque color over a darker tone.
