Right and Left

The title refers to shooting two birds in succession with a double-barreled gun. The weapon points toward the ducks and the viewer. Homer places the audience close to the instant of hunting. The late painting continues his attention to the sea and the sudden vulnerability of living creatures.

One duck stretches its wings outward. Its large body occupies much of the nearest space.

The second bird tips head downward. Their different positions convey the successive moments of the shots.

A small boat and hunter appear behind the left duck. The gun points toward the birds and simultaneously toward the viewer.

A turquoise wave rises below. No still shore is nearby; the birds hang over moving water.

A narrow warm band runs along the top. It separates the cool sea from the distant sky.

By 1909 Homer had lived beside Maine's sea for decades. In this late work he aligned the viewer closely with the shot's direction. The museum relates that choice to vulnerability and mortality through the scene's concrete construction.