Right and Left

_Right and Left_ refers to the shooting of two birds, one just after the other, with a double barreled shotgun. Winslow Homer may have seen hunters perform this feat at sea near his studio overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Prouts Neck, Maine.

Homer depicts a hunter firing at a pair of goldeneye ducks from a boat behind the bird at left. Small details heighten the drama: the flash of red from the gun, the sliver of sun on the horizon, and a loose feather floating in the air. The hunter’s gun points out toward the viewer — and the artist. Painted near the end of Homer’s life, the work is filled with references to mortality.