Prout's Neck, Breaking Wave, detail

Occasionally, Homer abandoned his brushes and tools and manipulated watercolors directly with his fingers. In Prout’s Neck, Breaking Wave (figure c), for example, he used a rag wrapped over his finger, blotting up the still-damp, dark blue wash to create broken clouds over a violent sea. Distinctive, elongated oval shapes that indicate his manipulations appear throughout the lighter area at upper left (see figure a). At least one contemporary watercolor manual described this …